Talking Points #1

At 1 day shy of 18 months, it is clear that Jules understands far more than she can speak.  I'm not sure if it is just me being overly anxious for her to speak but I recall Sophie being able to speak a lot more at this age - which was also the time we visited my sister in Ann Arbor.  In their own time I guess although she has been getting increasing vocal these days.

So just for my own record, I thought I should start keeping track of her vocabulary.  Hopefully, we'll start seeing this list grow more quickly as she turns 18 months tomorrow!

People
Papa
Mama
Por Por
Gong Gong (She finally learnt to call my Dad this week.  Oh you should have seen my Dad's happy face!)
Da-da (My elder sis likes to think she's calling her since we ask her to call her Da-yi but she pretty much goes around calling everyone else Da-da)
Che Che (for Sophie)

*Hasn't learnt to call Yiyi Sam and Uncle Jude yet, much to Sam's disappointment.

Food
Mum-mum (for eat)
Nai Nai (for milk or whenever she wants to nurse)
Strawberry (She says this best.  Not an easy 3 syllabus word for a 17 month old but I guess she knows she has.to.earn.her.treat)
Nana (for bananas)
Apple

Things
Ball (for ball or balloon)
Bubble (One of her favourite words.  She says it everytime we have a bubble bath)
Vroom vroom (for car, drive or gone off like when my sis goes home after visiting and we ask her where's Da-yi, she'll go "vroom vroom")
Umbella (for umbrella.  She can't quite pronounce the 'r')

Nature/Animals
Flower
Bird
Woah Woah (for dog)
Duck

Expressing 
Hi
Bye
Ait (for wait, complete with putting up her palm and telling you to wait.  Can't pronounce 'w')
Mine! (This is our favourite.  She does it when we ask her Angel belongs to (Angel is Yiyi Sam's 17 year old stuff doggy.  She'll go mine! Complete with hand action pointing to herself.  It'll break her heart knowing Angel really isn't hers)

There are probably a few I may have missed out but these are pretty much her entire vocabulary for now.  Hopefully she'll pick up more words as she joins the bigger toddler class come next week!

Thankful

Day 5 of the dreadful HFM and by the grace of God, Jules is much much better.  

After reading all the horror HFM stories online and how some parents feed their poor kiddos nothing but ice cream (cos that's all their child will take), I'm just thankful we didn't have to deal with too much fuss with Jules.  

We technically didn't find out that she had contracted HFM till Day 3 which was truly such a crazy nightmarish day.  But after spending that night nursing her almost through the night, she woke up on Sunday in a visibly better mood and pretty much danced her way through Day 4 while serving us tea and cupcakes in between.  We kept to a liquid diet mostly giving her lots of nutritious chicken soup in which I mashed up carrots and potatoes.  She actually finished everything - although it took a walk in the park to distract her with all the little doggies and guys playing soccer - before she finished up her dinner.  Let's just say we indulged her in anything over the weekend (sucking on ice cubes included) as long as it helped her to eat better.

I'll like to think the worst is over.  Our baby is back to her usual happy, chirpy self and so is her Mama.  I was major psyching myself up for a few days of war with this virus.  I'm thankful we didn't have to fight too long and that at the end, God - 1, HFM - 0.  

To mummies reading this - if, just if ever, you find yourself having to deal with HFM, my advice is - lots of TLC for your kid and lots of patience on your part.  We were lucky in that we only had to go through one very stressful day but that was enough to have me in tears seeing my poor baby in so much pain.  When she refused her liquids, I was all prepared to just give up and send her to the hospital.  But we pressed on and just used different ways and means to feed her - take a walk in the park, let her play with her toys while you feed etc.  Anything that you usually don't allow her to do - just give in.  It's not the time to instill discipline.  And if you're with me as far as your faith is concern, pray.  Pray because He heals.  

I know there were many people praying alongside us - our family, our friends.  We are thankful for every prayer said and know that God has answered each and every of them.  

God is good.      

Our daughter back to her cheeky self by Day 4

The Dreaded Four Letter Word

Jules in down with HFMD - it's like a never ending cycling of viruses hitting the home - I'm honestly getting really drained and tired. 

It started about 3 weeks ago with Dad coming down with a really bad cough and refusing to see the doctor - which drove me really angry.  It was no surprise that our daughter - who was none the wiser about her favourite Gong Gong's cough still insisted on snuggling up close with him - came down with a cough for the very first time.  It was a matter of time that both the hubs and myself caught the bug and so did my younger sis.  One week into Dad's nasty cough and Mum and our helper were the only strong soules left standing.  Thankfully, Jules recovered from the cough in about 2 days.  While the meds helped, I think the wonderful Eucalyptus oil that my sister-in-law D introduced us helped a great great deal (I'm going to make sure the younger sis and her friends brings a luggage full of these back for us when she goes to Melbourne and Sydney in July!)  We adults on the other hand won't doing us great (maybe I should start drinking my own breastmilk!).  Having completed my course of antibotics, my throat was still sore and my cough had gotten worst.  The hubs and sister weren't any better so off we were at our dear Doctor L again and were were all sent home with a stronger course of antibotics.  At this point, mum was starting to get a scatchy throat and by Day 10 of Dad's evil virus, she was down with a full blown flu and an eye infection to match.  Our helper had a narrow brush with this highly contagious bug and thankfully managed to cure herself with a few spoons of pi-pao-gao.  Day 16 and we looked like we were all finally on the mend except for Mum who was still recovering from her sore throat.  So just as I thought we could all finally have some restful sleep and the hubs could join us back in the bedroom for a good night's sleep (he relegated himself to sleeping on the sofa outside cos he was coughing so badly at night), Jules suddenly came down with a fever on Thursday evening - Day 17 of this crazy virus.  

We monitored her for the whole of Friday as the fever hovered around 38.3C.  I held back sending her to her to Dr V cos I thought it was teething related since she was drooling badly and kept putting her fingers in the mouth.  Plus her molars have also been sprouting up everywhere.    But when her fever hit 39.3C in the evening - I panicked!  She has never had fever this high.  I gave her a suppository and we spent the next hour sponging her all over to bring the temperature down to 37C - it thankfully stayed that way till the wee hours of the morning when it climbed up to 38C again.  

We whisked her off to Dr V first thing on Saturday morning.  We explained the symptoms she had and before she checked her throat, she did say there could be a few causes - dengue included. But once she saw her throat she confidently confirmed it was HFM.  The dreaded 4 letter word I wished I didn't have to hear.  There wasn't much medication she could prescribed lest for some oral drops to help numb the pain.  We were given strict instructions to make sure she stayed hydrated - at least 800ml to 1 litre of fluid of any sort in a 24 hour period.  Lethargy, not drinking, not peeping enough and we would have to admit her to hospital to be on drips.  It all sounded very scary to me.  

The rest of the day was quite a nightmare.  We literally had to force feed her milk with a spoon.  She won't sit on her high chair and only wanted to be carried.  I think the amount of tears she shed yesterday was more than all the tears she has ever shed since her birth.  My poor baby has never cried so much!  I was totally heartbroken seeing her in so much pain and having so much difficulty swallowing her food, it brought me to my tears.  We offered her ice water, apple juice, cold ribena but nothing appealed to her.  Thankfully she would still nurse so I just nursed her to sleep for her afternoon nap.  In the evening, we had to put her in her pram and walk round the neighbourhood with her distracting her with the birds on the trees and doggies in the park while feeding her some chicken soup.  It was such a stressful day - like her milk bottle strike days were back to haunt me.  She literally spent the entire of last night latched onto me nursing all night.  I was all for it - anything as long as liquid was getting into her body.  

This morning, I woke up to a sweet post on Facebook by my younger sis who sent out a prayer request to pray for her little niece.  It was the sweetest thing and it brought me to tears (again).  And true to His form, God has heard our cries, Jules was clearly better today.  She was back on her feet dancing, not as needy as yesterday and found enough energy in her to even play on her own and brew me some tea in a cuppa.  She stills needs some cajoling with drinking her milk and water but it's definitely much better than what we had to deal with yesterday.  I put honey water into her favourite water bottle and she actually willingly picked up the bottle to sip it throughout the morning.  Praise the Lord for hearing our prayers.  I'm praying things are uphill from here.  

She's gonna be home for the next week at least till Dr V gives her the all clear to return to school. And just to make sure she gets all the TLC possible, Mama is staying home with her and Papa will try take some time off work as well.  If having us around is what it takes to make her feel better then we'll do just that.

She's a trooper and I know by God's grace, our Jujubee will get through this and build up the immunity to fight off all these nasty viruses. 

What a 3 weeks it has been!  It's not over but trusting in God that things will only get better - for this too shall pass. 

Pray with me please. 

Hang in there baby ...
you'll be dancing like you always do soon enough!
Mama pinky promise

Letters to Julianne #22

Dearest Julianne, 

How did you enjoy your last month?  It had its fair bit of tears didn't it?  One month into school and I can't quite decide if you really enjoy that few hours away from home.  You love putting on your uniform and know that means it's school day.  But Teacher S tells me you're still crying on and off - that's quite clear to me since you're in tears at least once a week when I pick you up from school.  Ya, what started like a perfect first day of school hasn't been quite perfect since.  Here's the usual report card I get : (1) Always wants to join the toddlers' class (2) Short attention span - plays for a while and loses interest quickly (3) Loves music session (4) Is very helpful - will always keep the toys (5) Very good English, understands instructions very well (6) Doesn't want to eat much of her snack or lunch.  Let's just say the report card is all you - through and through.  

I'm not sure what's with the tears though.  You don't usually cry at home unless you're hurt or in discomfort.  So when I see you in tears at pick up, my heart breaks a little and I'm wondering if I made the right choice sending you to school this young.  But when I see you unintentionally showing us some of the things you learnt in school - like how you now know how to use the tambourine properly or can show us the action to the Incy Winsy spider song and a few other nursery rhymes, I think we made the right choice.  You're still adjusting I know and I confident that with time, it'll be tears no more.  

This month, you unfortunately came down with pretty bad cough - a very first for you.  You have never had a cough this past 17 months.  Boy did we have some rough nights - actually just two rather bad ones thankfully.   Poor you were coughing and waking up every hour from the cough.  I felt like a horrible mother when I couldn't do anything to make the cough go away, so I just nursed you all night to comfort you.  Mama was so angry with Gong Gong for refusing to see the doctor for his cough and spreading the virus around the house - yes it was very naughty of Gong Gong - thankfully he finally saw the doctor right? And so did you.  After feeding you with a cocktail of medicines for 2-3 days, you were finally on the mend - gotta thank God for your speedy recovery.  As I type this, Papa and Mama are still fighting what we hope is the tail end of the nasty flu bug that has hit the home.  

We didn't have many exciting adventures this month partly cos we were all under the weather.  But we did manage a lovely Sunday morning trip to the Jacob Ballas Children's Playground where you and Che Che Sophie had a fun time getting all wet and wild! You are still a little young for most parts of the garden - I mean I not sure if you ready to understand what "partially submerged" and "totally submerged" plants means - but you sure did have fun at the long tunnel slide and the waterplay area! 

Fun @ the Jacob Ballas Children's Playground

On the speech front - we're still not quite making huge progress.  You are saying some new words here and there - "strawberry", "bird", "che che" but you aren't very forthcoming with your speech and won't speak unless we ask you to.  Your speech is still mostly gibberish - I guess we'll get there in you own time.  We're not doing any better when it comes to numbers.  The only number you can recognise is the number "7" and you will say "seven".  I am embarrassed to say it's all thanks to Charlie and the Numbers on BabyTV.  I think you're just happy with your music and dance.  I guess you don't think words and numbers are your priority at this point.  

We got a short getaway coming up later in May - the sun, the sea and the sand.  I hope you'll enjoy it.  We aren't going very far but you've got good company on the trip and I think that will make you very happy!  

Till then, let's take April slow.  Give Yiyi Sam a nice birthday, you try to like school more and cry less and Mama promises you'll continue to get all the cuddles and hugs from Papa and me every.single.day.  

You're a big a girl now Julianne.  Just one more month and you're on to toddlerhood.  Stay sassy and continue to fill your heart with so much love for the people around you!  Mama is so proud that you are one little girl with so much love to go around!! 

Happy happy 17 months little pumpkin!  

Love you no matter how sweaty and 'chow chow' you may be! 

Love you always and always, 

Mama