I'm sorry this is a couple of days late. Mama didn't forget that you turned 18 months on 1 May. It's just that we were all so stressed up the past week, Mama really wasn't in the right mood to write you a letter - not when I was dealing with a whole lot of not very nice feelings as we fought against that nasty stomach flu bug that turned our past week upside down.
April turned out to be quite a nightmare of a month - I can only pray we never have to relive a month like that ever again. First we had to deal with that very first cough you had towards the end of March. Then as you were barely getting well, the little monsters from HFM decided to pay you a visit. You fought them hard - just like the way Papa tells you to fight big bullies in future. You were such a trooper, we were so proud of you. Then we had about all but 2 weeks of peace before we found ourselves fighting yet another round of evil monsters doing bad things to your body. This stomach flu bug was an even bigger monster than the HFM. It landed us at the A&E of Gleneagles at 3am in the morning after you threw up 10 times over. For days, you couldn't keep your food down - the monsters just did nasty things to you tummy causing you severe diarrhea. I've never been so obsessed with your poop or peep since your early infant days. We had to watch for signs of dehydration and had to make sure you were taking in enough fluids. To make all these worst, Mama was fighting the bad stomach flu monsters myself. And just as I thought things can't get any worst, you came down with another bout of cough and cold!! Mama was honestly losing it having to deal with all these monsters at the same time, it was so bad, I think I lost my cool at you and Papa a couple of times. Mama was bad that way, sorry.
I'm just glad all that is now behind us. We're keeping you away from school for the next 2 weeks till we come back from our short getaway. I really don't want to have you falling sick again. Playschool is really such a playground for all these monster viruses. I think we better just stay home.
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| Waiting patiently for her pasta lunch at Marmalade @ the Stables |
Well through all this, I'm thankfully that I have understanding bosses who allowed me to stay home with you so that you got every TLC you could get to help speed up your recovery. While I struggled for a while trying to understand why God would put you through one sickness after another, I've come to accept that it is all part of your growing up and that God sometimes has to let these little monsters in so that all that good immunity friends of yours can come out to make you stronger.
Our sad April aside, we had our share of happy days too. You went on your very first bike ride with us on your very own child seat with a cute little helmet to keep you safe. You look forward to our evening rides, always pointing excitedly to Papa's bicycle and then to your head, telling us you want to wear the helmet.
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| Going on your very first bike ride! |
This month, you also did heaps better in school. I no longer see you teary-eyed when I pick you up from school and Teacher S tells me that you're more participative during lesson time now too. You take instructions perfectly and I've been told that you're a very helpful child, always helping your teachers to pack up after play. I'm starting to see the benefits of school rub off on you. You can identify shapes (circle in particular) and can proudly show me your pointy when I say the number '1'! You know the actions to many more nursery rhymes some of which I never taught you at home, like - the Hokey Pokey Dance. You have also learnt to wear your own shoes (although most of the time, you wear them on the wrong side). Still, it's good to see you putting all these practical life skills to good use. Good job my baby!
This month, you went through (and still are) in a phase of pretending your stuff toys are your babies. You insist on taking your milk bottle to feed them milk, pat their little butts and put them to sleep (complete with a blankkie over them). We pretended to put on a diaper on them the other day and you were completely tickled! You bring them everywhere you go, cradle them in your arms or pat them on your shoulder - just like what we do to you! The other day, you took your spoon and medicine syringe and pretended to feed your "babies" medicine going "Strawberry, strawberry" as you fed them. Took me a while before I realised you were imitating us cos that's what we say to you to coax you into eating your meds. It really cracked me up! Sometimes, you just hold them up in front of your face and start talking to them - like giving them a lecture on life's greatest lessons. It is so adorable to watch.
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| Mothering your babies |
Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that little brain of yours. You clearly have a mind of your own and are capable of telling us what to do - likeaboss. Every night when it's time for our dinner, you will go around the whole house calling everyone to come to the dinner table. Not only that, you'll point us to our very own seat. The other day, Papa came home late and had dinner alone, and when he just randomly sat down on a chair that wasn't his usual seat, you pulled out his seat and started pointing to it, insisted that he moved to sit at his usual position instead. Truly Little Miss Bossy.
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| Monkey See, Monkey Do |
On your physical development - you've grown taller but lost some of the weight you put on in the past few months no thanks to all those viruses. Breaks my heart seeing all the effort in beefing you up in the past few months go down the drain. Looks like we're back to Project Fatten Julianne. Maybe I should just coat your rice in pork lard everyday!
You're still exclusively on breastmilk for all your milk feeds, although when you came down with your stomach flu, I tried feeding you some soy formula as it was suppose to be more gentle on your intestines. You took a few sips and decided to have nothing to do with it again. I tried the next day, you did better than the day before than again rejected it. Well at least you took a few sips and didn't reject it entirely! It actually smelt pretty fragrant (nothing like that repulsive cow's formula smell I recall when I had to prepare milk for your Yiyi Sam 20 years ago!). The plan was to wean you off by 18 months - today we're no where close to doing that. We do need to get serious about this weaning business soon young lady!
I promise you May will be a better month ok munch'kin! We've got a short getaway coming up and that's going to be real fun! With Yiyi Sam done with her exams, that also means another person to entertain you at home during the day! Mama is also thinking of starting you on a new game called "Sit on My Potty". They say it's a really fun game and you get lots of stickers as rewards. Wanna play with Mama?
Happy 18 months and 1 week my sunshine!! Mama loves you big big!!
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| My Sunshine! |
Always,
Mama.
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