Mummy, you study not good lah

Huh? Exactly my response!

I was flossing for her the day after we visited the dentist but since she was standing at the wash basin, it was really difficult to do a good job as I couldn't position my hands properly to slide the floss between her teeth. I guess she finds it uncomfortable too, hence:

Yiu Yiu: Mummy, you study not good lah.
Mummy: Huh?! I study not good?? What do you mean?
Yiu Yiu: You study not good, that’s why you are not a good dentist.

Oh! Now I get it! She was comparing me to Dr. Amy who demonstrated flossing to her during our visit, and told her that mummy will be doing the same thing for her. But then, she was sitting on the reclining chair in the clinic so it's much easier to floss. So I guess I'll have to get her to lie down on my lap for flossing, instead of standing up. Any tips on how you floss for your child?

First visit to the dentist

I had wanted to bring Yiu Yiu for a dental check-up since last year with the intention of exposing her to dentists, so that she won’t grow up fearing the dentists, like I did. My first exposure to the dentist was when I was in primary school. Those days, we had mobile dental clinics visiting our school and they would check on the oral health of the students. Students found to have dental caries were then arranged to undergo further treatment at the Klinik Pergigian, and I was one of those students. I've always dread going to the dentists, even to this day. And I always have to brace myself up for the twice yearly dental check-up! It could be due to the traumatizing experience of being taken to the Klinik Pergigian then, or it could be due to my extremely sensitive palate that whenever any dental instrument touches it, I'll retch.

Since I want her early experience with dentists to be a positive one so she doesn't grow up dreading them, I wanted to find a dentist who's child-friendly and would put her at ease during the visit. Someone recommended this dentist but her appointments are always full, especially on Saturdays, and has to be booked weeks in advance. As such, I procrastinated, as usual!

The other day, I noticed a tiny brown spot on Yiu Yiu's upper right lateral incisor and upon closer inspection, I was dismayed to realize that it was actually a tiny cavity. I quickly checked on all her teeth and found several tiny cavities on her lower teeth as well. I quickly called up the clinic but I still couldn't get an appointment with Dr. Jean, the owner. The earliest appointment available was around 3rd or 4th week of September but her front desk manager assured me that their other dentist, Dr. Amy, is good with children as well. Since I didn’t want to wait that long, I decided to see Dr. Amy. Even then, our appointment was only scheduled for a week later.

Before the visit, I had been psyching Yiu Yiu up, telling her that I'll be taking her to the dentist to check on her teeth as some of her teeth are "spoilt". She asked if it would be painful and I had to evade the question by saying that the dentist will only check and clean her teeth, coz I really wouldn't know if the dentist would do anything on her teeth. Anyway, she seemed to look forward to the visit, and even asked if the dentist is pretty…haha!

The visit went very well. While waiting for our turn, Yiu Yiu happily played with toys at the waiting area and walked around kpc everywhere.

When our turn came, Dr. Amy talked to her and put her at ease immediately. She checked on Yiu Yiu's teeth and confirmed that what I saw are early caries.

I think in total Yiu Yiu has about 4 or 5 teeth with early caries. And since Yiu Yiu doesn't sleep while sucking on her bottle of milk, which is the most common cause of tooth caries in children, she said that probably Yiu Yiu's teeth are just more susceptible to caries. Luckily Yiu Yiu's caries are all at the incisors, which should start to fall off in 2-3 years time. There's none at her molars, which will be with her for a longer time as the permanent molars don't erupt until she's 9 or 10 years old. There's no need to do anything now but to ensure that we maintain good oral hygiene to prevent the caries from worsening. My fault actually, coz I never insist on Yiu Yiu brushing her teeth before sleeping. But from now on, I guess she'll have to do it whether she likes it or not. The dentist also asked me to floss for her daily. Now that's going to be a challenge, coz I myself don't floss regularly :-) Anyway, I guess I also have no choice but to be more diligent in caring for my teeth as my gums have receded over the years due to tartar buildup.

Online photo printing

I first read about this service by eoe Online several months ago from some bloggers. As I prefer to keep my photos as photobooks, I didn't give much thought to it, but I did find the online photo printing service quite an innovative idea.

I recently completed two more photobooks on our trips to Hong Kong and Macau, Yogyakarta, Pangkor Laut Resort and Singapore, and since I owe mum and MIL some of these photos, I decided to give eoe Online a try. After all, the cost of their 4R print is the cheapest I've encountered so far, only 30 cents each, regardless of quantity. The cheapest I could find in retail outlets so far is 40 cents each, and that also if you print hundreds of them.

It's such an easy process – just go to their website, upload the photos, make payment and then wait for your photos to arrive, all in the comfort of your own home. No more having to save the photos into a thumbdrive/CD, driving to the photo shop, and return a day or two later to pick them up.

eoe Online is currently offering 4R prints at 30 cents and 5R prints for 50 cents. Delivery is free with a minimum purchase of RM35. You can also utilize their free, unlimited storage, online photo album service to store & share your photos with your family & friends. If you are a blogger, you can also participate in their review program to receive free 50 4R prints and 2 8R prints.

I've just placed my order, so will be looking forward for the photos to arrive soon.

I've been upgraded

I travel a fair bit for work and two years ago, I accumulated enough air miles to qualify for Enrich Gold, which gave me access to the lounge even when I'm flying Economy. However, due to all the cost cutting measures, our travelling had been reduced somewhat and thus, I didn't accumulate enough miles to maintain my Gold status and was downgraded back to Silver in March.

The other day, a letter from Enrich arrived in my mailbox. I didn’t think much of it as I thought it was one of their promotional brochures but when I opened it, I was pleasantly surprised.

The kind folks at MAS Loyalty Programme had, on their own accord, upgraded me back to Enrich Gold!

"Although our records state a slight lag in your Enrich Gold requalification tally, we truly feel you are one of the deserving few to retain your Enrich Gold status" was how they put it. Nice!

Thank you MAS. Your kind gesture really made my day, and it's always nice when businesses/organizations make you feel that your patronage is appreciated.

Yeay…I can look forward to accessing the lounge again during my travels.

Is it Manglish? No, it's Chinglish

I speak to Yiu Yiu in English while hubby speaks to her in Mandarin or Cantonese. Nevertheless, she's still more inclined to use English in replying hubby despite being spoken to in Mandarin or Cantonese. When MIL was around to help with my confinement, Yiu Yiu had no choice but to speak in Mandarin or Cantonese with mah-mah. But her Mandarin vocabulary is clearly lagging behind her English. Here are some of her Chinglish sentences:

我 mummy 不知道 how to 放 (my mummy doesn't know how to put)
我要你冲凉给我 when she's supposed to say我要你帮我冲凉 (I want you to take bath for me)
等我，我要 tell you something (wait for her, I want to tell you something)
麻烦你绑头发给我when she's supposed to say 麻烦你帮我绑头发 (can I trouble you to tie my hair)

She's cognizant that her Mandarin is not so good, coz when we correct her, she says, 我会讲华语一点点only (I can only speak a little bit of Mandarin).

Aarrgh!!! I've to start pumping again

The title says it all…I've got to start pumping again in preparation for me going back to work in October. This is the part of breastfeeding that I hate most – the endless rounds of pumping, storing and sterilizing but what to do, breast is best for baby. I've got to start building up my stock of frozen breastmilk, as well as train Yan Yan to drink from the bottle.

I'm also in a dilemma as far as going back to work is concerned. I'm scheduled to attend a conference in Montreal from October 18 – 24, so I'll need to be away for one whole week. As much as I love to go (I've never been to Canada), I'm worried about two things – whether I can stock up enough milk for Yan Yan for the entire duration that I'll be away, as well as the appearance of a new, more severe strain of H1N1 virus.

With Yiu Yiu, I first travelled when she was slightly more than four months. I was away for six days in Bangkok then. At that time, I pumped and carted back almost 150oz of expressed breast milk (EBM) so that replenished my freezer with milk that Yiu Yiu consumed while I was away. I won't be able to do the same in Montreal this time, as I'll be travelling for more than 24 hours, including transit time on the return flight. That rules out bringing home frozen EBM. At the most, I would be able to cart back only chilled EBM expressed in the last two days of my trip, so that may not be sufficient to replenish the stocks that Yan Yan would consume while I'm away. And Bangkok was also a time before restrictions on carrying liquid onboard was introduced. I'm sure it'll be much tougher now, having to check in the EBM and all. I wonder if my boss would be kind enough to allow me to give this trip a miss.

Sports day

Last Saturday was Yiu Yiu's kindy sports day, held at SJK (C) Yuk Chai in Taman Megah. I was initially in two minds whether I should attend, coz that would mean bringing Yan Yan along, and I was hesitant due to the increasing incidence of H1N1. But then again, how could I miss Yiu Yiu's first sports day, rite? So off we went with baby in tow. Luckily she was mostly sleeping in the sling throughout the whole event after I nursed her in the car on our way to Yuk Chai. She only woke up towards the end during the prize giving ceremony and I found a quiet corner to nurse her.

The event started with march past by the students and singing of the national anthem.

Yiu Yiu making monkey faces at the children tent before the start of the Sports Day

Preparing for the march past

Jasmine class march past

All attention while singing the national anthem

This was followed by speeches by the Principal, the Director of Community Excel Services (which runs the kindy), and Senior Pastor of DUMC. The 6-year olds then performed a simple cheerleading act before the sporting events began.

Under the hot sun during the speeches

Cheerleading act

Each age group (3 – 6 years old) were divided into four teams (red, yellow, green and blue) to compete in a total of seven events with names such as Hippity Hippity Hop, Fun Acrobatics, Racing Bunnies, Clig Clog Farmer, Bring Rollie Home, Fish Tale and Fill Me Up. Yiu Yiu's event, Fish Tale was the second last event. Yiu Yiu was in the red team, and she was lined up as the first one from her team to start. She wasn't in a good mood prior to her event as she was enjoying her snack in the children tent but had to quickly abandon it when they were called by their teachers to go out to the field. While waiting for volunteers to set up the necessary props for the event, we asked her if she knew what she had to do but she just kept quiet. That got us worried for a bit coz she was the first in line!!!

(L) See her sour face after having had to abandon her snack (R) Being led to the field for her event, Fish Tale

Luckily when the they were flagged off, she just ran off and did her stuff - fishing out a plastic fish from a huge basin with a chopstick, then running on a wooden beam before dropping the fish into a waiting shark :-) She was all excited when she completed her turn and was grinning to ear-to-ear. Her team eventually emerged as champion for the event and boy, was she excited!

(Top) Ready, get set, go! (Bottom) Lets go fishing

Running back to her teammates. Both her feet were off the ground in this shot, perfect timing!

There were also games for parents - three-legged race, tug of war for mummies and daddies, and Wet Wet World. Siblings were not forgotten too. It started to rain during the last parents' game of Wet Wet World, where parents were lined up and had to pass water balloons from one end to the other. The MC cajoled the parents who were already in the field when the rain started, asking them to stay on since they were bound to get wet anyway, and the parents sportingly completed the game amidst the rain.

They waited for the rain to stop before starting the prize giving ceremony for the children but just as the prizes were given out to winners of the first event, it started to pour again. The prize giving ceremony had to be stopped but the sky was just not cooperative so it was eventually held inside the crowded children tent.

(L) Getting her medal from one of the pastor (R) See mummy, it's a gold medal

Here's my buddy, Faythe

With Faythe and Teacher Esther

Thanks Jazz for some of these lovely photos

Parents were then treated to some refreshments before the sports day came to an end.

Just as an aside, I got a call from Yiu Yiu's class teacher several days before the event to ask if I could prepare some food for her class for them to snack on while waiting. MIL and I prepared these:

Bread roll with chicken floss and longan jelly

When I asked Yiu Yiu if she got to eat the food that we prepared, she said no. I guess amidst the confusion, the food must have gone to a different class. Aiya!

Yan Yan - 1st month update

She's now 5.05kg (she put on 1.35kg since birth) and is 54.7cm in length. I thought she didn't grow that much length-wise but her paediatrician said she's probably longer than that as she was all curled up when her length was measured. Her head circumference has increased 4cm to 38cm.

As with most newborns, she still feeds every two to three hours around the clock. And she can be really impatient when she wants to be fed, thrusting her face everywhere looking for the nipple. She suckles well and almost always choke at the beginning of the feed, when I have my let down. She also regurgitates a lot, even after burping and holding her upright for 10-15mins. It's quite distressing sometimes to see her vomiting huge portions of her feed.

In the earlier weeks, she used to have a bowel movement almost after every feed but now, she only passes motion once or twice, but each time she poos, there's really lots!

She stretches and moves her limbs about a lot when lying down, resulting in even more regurgitation. The old folks say that a stretching baby is a growing baby, as in, those who stretches a lot grow longer faster. Wonder if it's true, but then again, ALL babies stretch a lot, don't they?

She's generally quite a happy baby, and will be contented when left on her own if she's not hungry or wet. But when she gets bored, then she’ll cry out to be carried :-) She also grunts a whole lot – she grunts when she's awake, grunts when she's trying to sleep; she grunts when she's hungry, grunts when she's full; she grunts when she's lying on her back, grunts when she's lying on her tummy. I hope this is not a sign that she'll talk non-stop when she grows older :-)

She has progressed from turning sideways from a lying down position, to turning from side to side. She can also hold her head upright and lift her head when she's lying on her stomach, and turning it from side to side.

She enjoys bathing, and being massaged after her bath and when she's changed into her pyjamas at night.

She sleeps with me and Yiu Yiu on our king-size bed, while husband has been relegated to a mattress in Yiu Yiu's princess bedroom. She sleeps better and longer on her stomach so though I know it's better to let her sleep on her back due to the risk of SIDS, I've resorted to letting her sleep on her stomach when I'm desperate, i.e., when she fusses about and couldn't fall asleep for ages after a midnight feed. Thank God for making mummies light sleepers, as I'll wake up at her slightest stir to check on her.

Here are some lovely photos of Yan Yan, taken when she was 13 days old by these two talented mummies.

Jaundice update

We went to Yan Yan's paediatrician on yesterday for the second dose of her hepatitis B vaccination. She's still slightly jaundiced and her paediatrician said that it's most likely breastmilk jaundice. He asked us the colour of her stools (which is mustard yellow) and urine (slight yellowish tinge) to which he said are normal. Anyway, he wanted us to collect a sample of her urine for him to assess for colour, but right after her injection, and before we could put her diapers back on, Yan Yan passed urine for him to see. Smart girl, she wanted to save her parents another trip to the hospital :-)

Upon seeing the colour of her urine, he assured us that there's nothing to worry about, and that he'd only be worried if her poo is whitish and her urine dark brown. Anyway, if she still appears yellowish in two weeks time, we'll have to bring her back for blood test. And he warned us that the blood test would be more traumatizing compared to the few earlier ones as more blood needs to be drawn out. This, and few other websites mention that breastmilk jaundice is normal and quite harmless, so I'm not really sure if there's a need for the blood test. But I guess we'll still bring her for the blood test as advised, but I certainly hope that her jaundice will resolve by then.

My first PayPal purchase

To celebrate the end of my confinement, I decided to reward myself with these:

A Mama Patch raw silk ring sling in Autumn, nori smiley punchers and fork picks.

Not exactly things to pamper myself with, huh? Well, the ring sling will definitely come in handy to have my hands free even when Yan Yan wants to be carried. I figure I'll probably need it a lot in the next six weeks alone at home with her. As for the nori punchers, I've always thought of getting one but the stingy (I'd rather think of it as frugal) side of me always stop me from buying it. But I guess it'll be another good investment if I were to continue to pack bentos for Yiu Yiu (and for Yan Yan in the future). The relatively inexpensive fork picks are useful when I need to secure food tightly, when the usual food picks can't do the job.

Anyway, I didn't have to fork out money as they were paid with $$$ in my PayPal account earned from writing paid posts in the past. There's not much $$$ in my PayPal account, since there were very few opportunities which I could qualify for. It's been ages since I wrote a paid post, and I can probably forget about writing them, as even prolific bloggers and those with their own domain are finding opportunities hard to come by. Never mind, I'll just savour shopping away the remaining balance in my PayPal account, coz that's what a woman do best…haha.