HFMD SCARE...!!!

Isabel had mild grade fever last week for 2-3 days, Thinking that it might just be "heaty" we gave her fruits like watermelon and make her drink lots of water hoping she'll be ok.

But as I mentioned earlier, there was a minor outbreak in her playgroup whereby the teachers are doing checks for spots on their palms before they are allowed to admit to the class. Notice I'm saying palm because its all they check... they never check the mouth and tongue.

Anyway...she started having sore throat that's when the the nightmare began...

She screams and cries whenever she swallows, tears roll down her check, she grabbed her neck and hopped around screaming somemore. Its really painful to see her like this, she's super manja especially when I reach home from work... I stood at the door and observe her for a while before opening and announcing I'm home, upon seeing me, I seems to remind her of the pain and she'll scream and run to me complaining of the discomfort she's been thru the whole day.

Nightmare got worst when she started to have ulcers on her lips... This got us worried.
But the weird part is there isn't any blisters or red spots on her hands and feet. Even the doctors isn't sure if its HFMD. But to be on the safe side, she was quarantined for the next few days.

Unlike the last time when she had the real HFMD, she can eat and drink. I gave her ice water which is able to numb the throat so that she can swallow better.

The most difficult part is the time when we're all asleep, suddenly she can scream and cry in pain. At 4.30am in the morning, she stood at my bedside holding her water bottle, woke me up and said "Daddy...no more ice already" She drank nothing but ice water and ice-cream, thank God that she's not coughing.
After 3 days of crying in pain, the healing started to take place... On Sunday she's able to eat and drink properly without any complain. Today My wife brought her to the doctor again to certify that she's either not having HFMD or fit and safe to go playgroup again.

I can see that she's glad the pain has finally left her.

But I have to say I'm more relieve than she is.

Before...










After...




I love the fresh new look of Ally. Though her head looks smaller, but definitely neater. With a shorter fringe, her eyes looks brighter too. I think she likes it too.

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I took a day of leave to spend some time with the kids.

I had a few ideas of activities lined up for them including a walk in the park, slide and swings at the playground, drop by the library to pick up some books...

Morning went by quickly, nothing much accomplished, but not for Isabel... she managed to watch a couple of DVDs before going to her playgroup.

After lunch, we headed off to the library with Isabel leading the way. She volunteered to push the stroller for me but mostly ended
up in the bushes.


(Back view looks like she's doing ok)












(Front view show that she's having a hard time pushing her sister who's weight is fast catching up with her)



Ally sat and looked at some of the pictorial books, her favorite is
those "peek-a-boo" books which she can discover things by lifting up the cover.






"Interesting... wonder will it hurt if I throw it at daddy..."

She did throw it at me.

"...So many books..."

After Isabel picked the books from the children section, I told her I want to look at some books for myself... which is very stressful when I have the 3 year old with me. She just want to get out of the adult section and proceed to the check out counter.

"Daddy, did you bring the library card?"

"Yes..."

5 seconds later...

"Can I have the library card?"

"No... I don't want you to lose it. Let me finish finding what I want and we'll go check out the books ok?"

"OOoookkkaayyy..."

3 seconds later

"Can we go now?... I want to check out the boooooooooks"

"Lateeeeeerrr"

"pleeeaaaaseeeeeee..."

"ok... ok... ok... we go now..."

I don't even know what I grabbed off the shelve, just didn't want to leave empty handed.
But it turned out to be an interesting book anyway.

Coffee...

Something I'd never thought I'll be addicted to it... I know its not good to take too much caffeinated drinks, but I can't start the day without it. I love the smell of coffee, the aroma running up my nostrils stimulating my sleepy gray matters. even if its instant coffee.

I will not be grouchy, but just feels like something is missing. The eye lids will be heavy, yawning 200 times per minutes. The morning will seem extra long... I'll keep thinking of going to the vending machine or the canteen to get a quick drink.

But I have another problem... I'm allergic to caffeine if overdosed. One cup is the max, provided its not too strong. If overdosed?... Besides the usual side effect of not able to sleep at night, I also will have very fast heart rate, and hyper-ventilation, I need to take deep breaths, maybe even a little light headed.

So its a "Love , Hate" thing going on. Something I love to have in the morning, but hate it for what it does to me later.


Sometimes when the urge gets strong for a second cup, the solution is to get from either "Starbuck" or Coffee Bean" a cup of Decaf. But the price of a small cup from the famous franchised coffee cost S$3-4 at least. That's like the cost of a meal on the average.

What to do? Like I said, its a "Love Hate" thing.

Let's play a game... Who can spot Isabel from the crowd?

We saw from the news paper that some of the characters of the new movie "Ice Age 2-Meltdown" are coming to the mall near our place, so I thought it should be interesting to let Isabel be part of the screaming audience in front of the live performance by a bunch of people in animal suit.

Isabel has seen the previous movie, she was pretty excited, kept saying "The squirrel very funny hor? Knock knock on the ice...ha ha ha."

I got her settled down 40 minutes early, so for 40 minutes she keeps looking at me asking me "Why the show haven't start?"

But when the show finally starts, she covered her ears with her hands because she was near the stage, which means she was also near the pair of 6 feet high speakers that's blasting decibels so high it makes her ears ring.

I noticed she didn't smile throughout the whole show, just watch the older kids participating in games on stage to win movie merchandise. Same old game they play in every road show... music starts, kids starts dancing, music stops, kids freeze. The host will try ways to make them laugh or move. And the last kids on the stage is always the one who doesn't know when the game is over. He'll just freeze there period.

The star of the show hopped on to the stage and moved to the rhythm of Vanilla Ice's old hits "Ice Ice Baby". But the person in the squirrel suit seems to have 2 left feet, doesn't know whether to put down the giant nut and dance or hold it as a prop.

After the show, there's a photo session with the over-sized prehistoric mammal for the first 30 person who can present a receipt of $30 spent in the mall on that day. I wrestled and elbowed a bunch of aunties to obtained the 5th position in the queue, then beckoned Isabel to come. But the 3 year old started crying and kicking, pulling me away from the queue, simply refused to go up the stage.

I guess she's just not ready for this.

We were at the Tampines Mall when we saw a very long but fast moving queue just outside the Mall, we went near it and found that they were giving away free bottles of Coke Light to the people in the queue.

A man with a loud-hailer was shouting "As long as you have 2 eyes, a nose and a mouth, we'll give you a bottle of Coke Light"


So of course being a typical Singaporean who likes freebies, I got into the queue... with my wife, 2 daughters and my maid... a total of 5 bottles for us... ha ha ha... I was surprised they also give my sleeping baby a bottle too, they really keep to their words of "as long as you have a face"...

I prefer Coke Light than Diet Coke which has better taste than the later. But still its too much gas to my stomach.

Do you know Coca Cola was initially a cough syrup? Now you know why it tastes so addictive.

This is Isabel with a full bladder, hopping around trying to finish her melting ice-cream as fast as possible before she is allowed to come in the house to the toilet.








Ally is becoming more playful and interactive with her elder sister, while the elder willingly let her does whatever she likes to her. Ally can climb all over her, ride her like a horse or lay on top of her also can.




Recently I received a notification from Isabel's playgroup that there is a minor outbreak of Hand Foot Mouth disease there. Several children has been infected, stringent checks and cleaning have been started.
Isabel had her share of the experience of HFM about a year and a half ago. It was her first time feeling such discomfort in her throat that she refused to talk, eat or drink for few days. All she did was cry whenever she swallowed saliva. We tried giving her something cold to sooth the pain but that causes diarrhea, making her lose more fluid.

By the third day, she was so weak and dehydrated that she has to be admitted to the hospital. Can't say that she suffered while she's in there. In fact she seems to enjoy the stay as all she did was lay in bed and watch cartoon channel all day long. Rather it was us parents who has to sleep on the sofa every night. By the end of her stay, I could hardly stand up straight.

I have to be the one handling her as my wife was few months pregnant with Ally. Maybe I was weak, in the end, I got my share of HFM too. It was then that I realize why Isabel simply refuse to eat or drink.

It was horrible... tears would roll down my cheek when I forced myself to eat.
Took me 9 days to recover.

Weekend Fun




















Quite a weekend...

Its been a while since I brought Isabel to this new playground, I was on the way there as I was assigned to buy dinner that evening, Isabel wanted to follow, so along the way we detoured to the playground for a while.

Isabel loves the swing. You see her happy face, you know she really enjoys it. "Higher! Higher!" She'll shout. Her joyful laughter, all worth to let her mommy wait for dinner for a while longer.

After that, while near the food outlet, we saw a man renting out electrical motorized kiddy rides in a open space. I remember when Isabel was younger, she ever tried once, but didn't know how to control it well. Also with the lack of supervision from me, she rammed the mini car into a fruit stall. She was not hurt but she cried very hard, from then on she don't like to go near these again.

But she surprised me by asking me to let her ride one. I asked the man which is the slowest and placed her on it. she drove off with me running by her side helping to steer away from obstacles. Everybody in the eating place must be enjoying the new entertainment as they watch me run around the compound chasing after the mini bike.

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Saturday, we headed to the beach with some friends and their kids for some fun in the sand and sun.

When we reached the beach, seems like a few thousands other families with kids also had the same idea as us. The whole beach was full of kids with their plastic scoops and pails.

We set the kids on the sand and started snapping photos like they are some kind of beach models in swimsuit contest, calling them to look at the camera while they were busy digging, and building sand castles. Beside taking photos of our kids, we helped to take photos of friend's children too, so that later we can do photo exchange.


Ally for the first time set eyes on the sea, set foot on the beach, feeling the moist sand between her toes, and let the sea water wash up her feet. She wanted to taste the sand but of course we have to stop her.




Ally testing the sea water for the first time.

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Sunday evening we were invited to an unusual birthday party, everything was decorated for a normal party for children... but the birthday girl is not 6 years old, but 60 years old.

She mingled around the crowd from table to table, smiling from end to end. When it was time for cutting the cake, her grandchildren, grandnieces and grandnephews flocked to her so ready to sing the birthday song for her.

It was a perfect picture of a contended grandma.

Mind you... this grandma drives a taxi to past time.

I always thought Isabel knew the concept of lies... Until last night.

I received a complain from my lovely wife that she got too "physical" with the maid. So I asked her:

"Bel... Did you hit Auntie Yani?"

"No"

"Really?"

*Nod-head*

I thought for a while then gave a simple example of what lies mean, then I sternly said: "God don't like people to tell lies!"... then I waited a while before I asked again:

"Now, did you hit Auntie Yani?'

..."Yes..." Then she buried her face in the pillow crying.

I didn't punish her, but instead encouraged her to tell the truth...always.