Happy Eternally

Kang Heng

2010-01-15T00:36:00.004+08:00

I have two boys: the elder one a 5-yr-old who inspired the setting up of this blog, and the younger one a 22-month-old toddler that is the cute boy you see in the photo above.

His name is Koh Kang Heng (许康恒), because we wanted him to be healthy (健康，永恒). This is because Luck Heng the elder brother has been suffering quite a lot from ill-health, mostly due to the fact that he is attending pre-school, where we all know is a breeding ground for all sorts of germs and viruses to spread.

Kang Heng grew up pretty ok, but around the time when he was six months old, we noticed a little action that he seem to be doing frequently. He was bobbing his head once in a while, as if his neck muscles suddenly decided not to support the weight of the head. At our regular 6-month check up with the paediatrician, we mentioned it to him. However as the doctor could only imagine how it looked like from our description, he suggested it was just a weak neck (which is pretty common among 6-month-olds) and told us to just monitor.

As Kang Heng grew older, hand movement started to add to the occurrences of the head bobbing. Some people who see it thought it was rather cute (as with everything a baby does) and we did not think very much of it. At the same time, he was still not learning how to sit on his own, and mostly liked to laze on us whenever we carry him. We attributed all this to his 'laziness'.

Gradually, we started to see that the head bobbing and hand raising movements might look like something that is out of the ordinary. After a quick search on the Internet, we learnt of the condition known as Tic, a sudden nonrhythmic movement or vocalization involving discrete muscle groups. It did not look too serious, and some equate it to hiccups. As such, we just thought of leaving it to the 12-month checkup with the paediatrician.

At the 12-month checkup, while describing the symptoms to the paediatrician, the attacks came. After witnessing it for himself, the paediatrician immediately referred us to a neurologist paediatrician for follow-up check, as he suspects this is a form of infantile spasm.

Luckily, we were able to get an appointment with the neurologist the following day. We went back to research on infantile spasm, and the outlook did not look very good: the wikipedia page says that statistically 5 out of every 100 children with that do not survive beyond 5 years of age. Both Yoke Ping and I went to the neurologist with a heavy heart, and I remember I cried as I drove on CTE that day.

The neurologist looked at Kang Heng, and order a EEG Test. This is a test where we had to place multiple electrodes on the scalp of Kang Heng to record the activities of his brain wave. It was really a heart wrenching sight to see one's offspring with all those electrodes attached to the head, but what needs to be done, needs to be done.

The nurse recorded the brain waves under various conditions: awake, strobing lights, lights, dim lights, sleep etc. The most difficult part was to get Kang Heng to sleep. After some hours struggling in the EEG test room, we finally was able to get the recording done. The neurologist studied the report, and told us a slightly better news than we expected. The worst case scenario for such a EEG test is that it indicates disturbed brainwaves in all parts of the brain. In the case of Kang Heng, it seems to be localised in certain portions of the lower brain on the left and the right side. The diagnosis we get is "partial onset seizure".

To be sure about the diagnosis, the neurologist ordered an MRI test the following day. As such, the next after was spent trying to get Kang Heng to sleep on command again, since if he was awake, he would not keep still enough for the imaging in MRI to be captured properly. Kang Heng is one who will struggle a lot to keep himself awake, if he does not want to sleep when I try to rock him to sleep. The doctor gave some sedatives to make it easier for Kang Heng to go to sleep, but he kept on fighting it, shaking his head vigorously to keep awake. After some hours of struggling, he finally fell asleep, but both Yoke Ping and I were also exhausted. Finally the MRI was captured properly.

We had to go back to the neurologist a few days later for the MRI report. It turns out that the MRI report confirms the results of the EEG test, just that while one suggests that it is the malformation on the left temporal lobe that affected the right temporal lobe, the other suggests the reverse. It does not really matter. What matters is that we now know that both sides' temporal lobes had some malformation, and that is give rise to the seizure attacks.

I asked the neurologist does the malformation mean that Kang Heng will lose some functions in future. The answer is that the left and right temporal lobes are responsible for the language (or speech, I cannot remember clearly) functions of a person. However, due to this concept known as 'plasticity', the brain can try to use the 'good' portions around the malformed portions to try to compensate. The pre-condition is to keep the seizures in check such that the brain will stop using the malformed portions of the brain and start to learn to use the 'good' portions of the brain. Being a geek, I used the analogy of marking bad sectors on a harddisk and using other sectors around it to help myself understand this better. And the good news is that plasticity is higher the younger the person is. This means that as long as we are able to keep the seizures in check, there is a good chance that Kang Heng will be able to compensate for the loss of functions due to the malformed part of his brain.

Thus starts the regiment of giving Kang Heng the medications twice day. We started to give medication as instructed by the neurologist. The seizures still came at the rate of around 1 per day. Dosage was adjusted, and after a few days the frequency of the seizure was stretched slightly to 1 per 2 days. The cycle of adjusting dosage and sometimes medicine repeats, and along the way the frequency of seizure also fluctuates up and down. Sometimes it is once for 4 days, sometimes it is a series of 1 seizure for 3 consecutive days. Along the way, we simply followed the neurologist's advice to vary the dosage and also switch medicine when he finds that the original combination did not work well on Kang Heng.

These 2 video will give you a better idea of what happens when a seizure attacks.

He would usually start with being very daze and will not respond to our prompting. Then the area around eye brows and sometimes the nose will flush red. When the seizure comes, he will stare in space while the hands raise in the air for a few seconds. When he is in a sitting position, his head will bob (at around 0:12 position in the video).

We finally found one combination of medication plus dosage that successfully dragged the time between seizures to 4 weeks recently, however after that on 2 consecutive days he had 2 mild seizures with one twitch each.

While treating the seizure, the neurologist also pointed out in the first few visits that Kang Heng seemed to display traits of developmental delay. Specifically, at 12 months Kang Heng was not able to sit independently without external support. He recommended a physiotherapist to us, and we took up the advice.

The physiotherapy sessions started sometime in Mar or Apr 2009, and we really observe marked improvement in Kang Heng's gross motor skills over the months. By Dec 2009, he was able to sit, pull to stand, stand independently for a few seconds, cruise along furniture and take 2-3 steps independently. For a child with development delay, we think it is tremendous improvement, we have heartfelt thanks to the physiotherapist that helped us through this journey.

Other than gross motor skills, Kang Heng's speech and cognitive skills development are also delayed. We are now exploring starting speech therapy for Kang Heng, since he already starts to babble some unintelligible sounds. We have also queued up for a vacancy in one of the early intervention programmes, but still waiting.

My wife and me has accepted that Kang Heng may be slower in everything when compared to kids of the same age. However, luckily he is a rather happy kid, and we just let things take their own course. One thing for sure, every little progress he makes, that was easily taken for granted by parents of normal children, is a lot more appreciated by us.

Singapore Pledge

2009-08-09T17:48:00.000+08:00

Why wait until 8.22pm? Just do the pledge anytime you feel like it. :)

S-I-N-G-A-P-O-R-E!

2009-08-04T16:30:00.001+08:00

七情上面的吉他表演

2009-01-30T18:02:00.003+08:00

有一次乐恒在我的祖母（乐恒的曾祖母）面前玩了一段"Air Guitar",用双手在空中仿似弹吉它的模样。她给了我十块钱，要我买一个玩具吉他给乐恒。我找了很久，才发现市面上的玩具店并没有普遍售卖玩具吉他，而如果到ToysRUs购买，叫价竟然是百多块！

还好乐恒的祖母（我的母亲）知道了，到处去找，终于找到了下面照片里面的玩具吉他。

吉他一到手，乐恒竟然有款有形地拿起来弹。声音当然完全不对，但他的表情真的是七情上面！

大年初一带乐恒到曾祖母家拜年，顺道带上玩具吉他，让他表演。虽然似乎没有什么人在听他唱歌，但表演完后的掌声，让乐恒的眼中泛起满意的样子。真可爱！

When the yakking of Luck Heng is much appreciated

2009-01-25T10:30:00.002+08:00

The last few days had been grueling for me. Luck Heng began to feel uneasy on Thursday evening and started to throw-up and 'down-load' throughout the night. Every 30 mins, he will wake up with a slight groan that grows into loud wailing, as he complains of pain in the stomach. A few times that night, he ended up passing some motion onto his pants, which caused him to cry uncontrollably as he feels ashamed that such things should not be happening on a 5-yr-old like him.

Brought him to the doctor's on Friday and took care of him the whole of Friday and Saturday. Both days see him laying on the sofa listlessly, as if all the energy is zapped from him through the various episodes of vomit and diarrhoea. Nothing much went into his system, except for some porridge and bread.

On Saturday evening, he felt a little better, hence he threw a small tantrum when he saw his dinner was still porridge. He insisted that he wanted to have rice for dinner. Seeing that his fever from two days ago has subsided, we relented.

It was quite a mistake, because a few hours later, he threw up his dinner again, and that's when he said: "连晚餐都吐出来了。" Somehow though, after that episode, he had a good night's rest.

At around 6am today, both Yoke Ping and I were coincidentally woken up by different reasons, and so we decided to perform one task for Lunar New Year that we have not completed yet - to prepare the Ang Pows - at that time.

Just as we were counting the money, Luck Heng woke up and starting asking me if he could play his Lego Police Station. I was quite delighted, as the past two days he was so weak that he did not even have an inkling of interest in playing any of his toy. We left him on his own to play his toy, while we we busy with the Ang Pows.

As he played, the normal Luck Heng returned: he was yakking both to himself and to us. Usually we would find his yakking rather repetitive, some times boring, and at times irritating. However, this time we were both appreciating, as the return of the yakking means that he is more or less recovered!

乐恒的第一个演唱会 - 一次愉快的经历

2009-01-05T15:18:00.005+08:00

经过上星期的呼吁，有一位好心的姐姐看了乐恒可爱的video后，决定让出自己的演唱会门票给乐恒。我们在星期五傍晚带了乐恒在约定的时间地点和她见面，好让她把票交给我们。

之后的两天，乐恒一直在期待着星期天的来临，也不断的在车程中要求我一再的播放“五月天的新歌”。我也在博客看到台湾相信音乐的Joe的留言，叫我们可以不用担心，带乐恒去演唱会。但是因为没有留下联络方式，我也不知道该不该相信。

星期天下午，午觉过后，我就带着乐恒到演唱会会场。演唱会八点开始，我们六点到达，但已经是比好几千个粉丝迟了。反正迟也迟了，我就带乐恒到附近的购物中心买些点心当晚餐，回到会场，就学别人一样做在地上享用晚餐。

等了一回儿，会场开放，等了许久的粉丝们很有秩序的步入会场。到了我们入场时，只看到负责保安的工作人员，没有看到像是音乐公司的工作人员，我也没有询问是不是如Joe说的。

随着人群走向舞台，看到大群人们都挤到会场的中央，两侧竟然没什么人，我就拉着乐恒到了会场的左侧，很幸运的可以占到一个非常接近舞台左侧的地点。

环顾四周，会场算宽敞。头顶上乌云密布，但也因为这样，阵阵凉风习习吹来，让人觉得挺舒服的。但我心里也想，希望天气就一直保持在这样就好，如果下雨的话，就完了。

乐恒年纪小高度矮，要让他看到台上，我就必须想法子把他撑起来。十多公斤，说重不重，但如果要抱他一、两个小时，我是绝对没有办法做到的。很幸运的，我们所在的舞台左侧，就有将观众与工作区隔开的铁栏。我将乐恒抱上，坐在铁栏上，高度刚刚好！

乐恒开心地坐了一会儿，有一位保安人员有礼貌的提醒我们在演唱会进行时因为安全原因不可以这样坐。我就得开始动脑筋应该怎么办。突然我灵机一动，把带来的背包掛在自己前面，让乐恒坐上去。虽然这样做会让我腰酸，但也胜过用手抱。我就这样‘顶’着乐恒，听了前面的几首歌。

五月天开始表演，所唱的，都是乐恒热爱的歌曲：《疯狂世界》、《终结孤单》、《人生海海》、《倔强》等歌曲，乐恒都开心的唱着。这时有一位工作人员问我要不要让乐恒站在铁栏的另一面，一个小铁板上。我把乐恒抱过去，乐恒一站，高度刚刚好。又次很幸运的能够让乐恒和我更舒适地享受演唱会！

站在铁板上，乐恒更可以快乐的随着音乐跳起来。不一会儿，唱到《离开地球表面》，乐恒更是使劲地Jump!

接下来的歌曲，又有许多乐恒的最爱：《志明与春娇》、《垃圾车》、《出头天》、《恋爱ing》等，他都忘我地大声唱，大声笑。

工作区里的工作人员，也掏出电话，将他拍下来。我和这位工作人员交谈，他说看到乐恒这么小就几乎每一首歌曲都会唱，觉得很有趣。我告诉他乐恒的票是别人给的，因为我把他的video放上网。他就冒出一句：“你就是Joe说的那位！”

原来是真的！（在这里要向Joe道歉，因为之前对你的留言半信半疑。也要对给乐恒票的Joelle姐姐说对不起，害你没得出席这次的演唱会。）

工作人员还告诉我，原来是石头看到了我的网贴，请Joe转告新加坡的同事。五月天真的看到了乐恒给他们的话！真的很幸运！

原本以为是新歌飙唱会，只会唱新歌，应该不会搞到太迟，但竟然有bonus地唱了许多我们喜欢的旧歌。但乐恒毕竟还小，到了演唱会的尾声时也有点累了，但他却也坚持要听完全部的歌曲才肯回家。演唱会完后，他还问我：“为什么没有唱《私奔到月球》？”

回家之前，乐恒坚持要我吃完之前没吃的“晚餐”。我们父子俩就坐在室内体育馆的梯级上吃，也录了这一段话。

总的来说，乐恒那天的快乐是总总因素与许多不同的人所促成的。他经过这次愉快的经验后，也告诉我说一定要到八月的五月天演唱会去！

更多照片

O买尬！ (Oh My God!)

2008-12-29T01:54:00.003+08:00

“五月天，我没有去过你的演唱会。我很想去你的演唱会！”

其实乐恒不知道/不记得自己其实在妈咪肚子里时陪过爸爸妈妈去过一次五月天的演唱会。或许胎教这回事是真的吧，年纪小小的他自从一两年前就非常喜欢五月天的歌曲。有机会坐我的车，都会要求听五月天的歌；每天晚上临睡前，也常常哼唱几首给几个月大的弟弟听；连大人问他最喜欢看什么电视节目，答案只有1.DisneyPlayhouse 2.五月天的演唱会DVD。

这次在第一时间买了五月天的最新专辑之后，知道能够换取免费的新歌飙唱会门票，我也兴奋的告诉乐恒我可以带他去五月天的演唱会了。我弟弟也买了一张专辑，但因为有事不能去听，就把兑换券交给了我。

12月28日兑换门票，很兴奋的带了一家大小到Central购物中心去。虽然是比指定时间早一个半小时抵达，心里有数人龙必定会长。但万万没有料到有如此的长！沿着人龙从头一直走，在购物中心外转了两个角落，才在新加坡河畔看到了“龙尾”。Oh My God! 伤脑筋！

太阳并不留情，正好中午，很用力的将滋养万物的强烈光与热洒在我们身上。虽然有阳伞遮荫，却也只能稍微驱走一点点快将人煮熟的热气。乐恒小小的头，平时就很容易满头大汗，这时更是有如刚从浴室中出来一样的湿！为了鼓一鼓他的“士气”，我叫他唱了一首五月天的歌曲：

花了大约一个小时在烈日下排队之后，工作人员开始派票，也有叫人到排队的人群中提醒大家把CD和兑换券拿出来。我又仔细一看，才发现兑换券上的小字写着一张兑换券+CD换一张门票！一张票，当然不可能让乐恒独自去，但也不可能让一名成人带他去。Oh My God! 伤脑筋！

突然灵机一动，想起弟弟的兑换券，就希望工作人员可以看在乐恒才仅仅五岁就那么热爱五月天，再加上有兑换券不就证明有购买CD了，可以网开一面，让我们换两张门票。

不料，轮到我们换票时，工作人员还是遵守规则，只给了我一张门票。他们的尽责态度是对的，但我也暗暗为乐恒失望。没想到，乐恒竟然脱口说了一句：“爸爸，只有一张票，我们share share（共用）吧！” 这句话令我心中又喜又悲。喜的是平日对乐恒的教诲，玩具、东西都应该共用，他记得很清楚；悲的是，我这个做老爸的，既然让他有了期待，却不能让期待实现。Oh My God! 伤脑筋！

晚上回家途中乐恒突然对我说：“爸爸，我要跟你讲话：我没有去过五月天的演唱会，我很想去。”我就叫他录了一段话给五月天（上面第一个video）

希望五月天或滚石新加坡能听到乐恒的呼吁，完成他的心愿。

Merry Christmas to all!

2008-12-26T03:31:00.000+08:00

He cannot handle the truth!

2008-12-05T12:14:00.003+08:00

Photos we took during our visit to Science Center on 21 Nov 2008.

We first brought Luck Heng to the Science Center when he was about 3 years old. We made a mistake to also attempt to bring him to the OmniMax theater which was showing a movie on dinosaurs. We barely spent 5 mins after the beginning of the show, before Luck Heng screamed for us to leave the OmniMax theater - because he was horrified by the dinosaurs.

This fear of dinosaurs carried on until now. When we arrived at Science Center again a few Saturdays ago, what greeted us at the entrance was a huge mock-up T-Rex. We tried to convince Luck Heng to take a photo with the dinosaur but he resisted it. The picture you see him with Kang Heng and Mummy was taken at the end of the day, after he relaxed and got himself totally drenched at the WaterWorks exhibit area.

Most of the exhibits in Science Center could not really raise his interest, since I figure it was still too early to explain some of the principles behind the exhibits. What was on his mind was the WaterWorks portion (which he could see at the entrance of the Science Center. To make sure that he does not just rush through the rest of the exhibits, I set a time for us to visit WaterWorks - at 5pm, one hour before the close of Science Center.

Although Luck Heng did not understand many of the exhibits, another thing he was looking forward to was to see "the Earth". Some time ago I introduced to Luck Heng my favourite group MayDay (五月天), and they have a song "Crazy World" (疯狂世界), where there was a line: "I really really want to fly, to escape from this Crazy World". He started to ask me what is the "World". I introduced maps and the continents to him, and eventually told him that we live in a big ball known as "the Earth". I was thinking of brining him to the exhibit area where the model of the Sun, Earth and other planets are displayed to explain to him more on this topic.

However, we came upon another exhibit area which got me more interested - on Climate Change. I taught Luck Heng about having to save electricity, save water and not waste anything. There was one interactive display where one can rotate a dial to move through a timeline from 2001 to 2100, to show how Global Warming is affecting Earth through the various years, if we don't do anything now. The map of the Earth got Luck Heng interested, and I explained to him the significance of the red portions on the map. The main point he learnt from this is that if we waste electricity and water, the world will get very very hot.

That night, before he slept, he asked for me to sleep beside him. I asked him for the reason, and he told me he was worried that the world will get very very hot. I comforted him that if he does as he is told to save electricity and water and food and other things, the world will not be very very hot. This comforting did not work as he continued to get very upset, so much so that he starting crying and ended up throwing up his dinner and supper.

I did not know that the impact would have been so great on him, but good thing is that after he got over it, he still remembers that conservation is key in everything we do today, which I think is good education for him.

Fullhouse Symptoms

2008-10-20T16:36:00.005+08:00

When I brought Luck Heng home from school on Thursday evening, my neighbour talked to him and commented to me that he seemed quite tired. I attributed his quietness to shyness, and said goodbye to my neighbour after a few minutes.

That night, we discovered that Luck Heng was running a high fever. From past experiences, we know that once Luck Heng does not perspire, fever will come, so we were wishing and hoping that he starts to perspire again. He stayed at home on Friday, and luckily was pretty cheerful throughout the day, despite the fever going up and down. It was also a stroke of good luck that we came upon a DVD of his favourite Micky Mouse Clubhouse, featuring both Mandarin and English languages. Most of his time at home was entertained by how hilarious Donald Duck sounds in Mandarin (cannot decipher a word!) and the interesting translations from English (Toodles became 土豆).

Come Friday night, what we hoped for came true: he began to perspire, and the fever was officially over. I began to plan in my mind what we can do on Saturday, and asked where Luck Heng wanted to go. He said he wanted to stay at home. This was the same answer he gave one week ago when I asked him what he wanted to do after going out for a few consecutive Saturdays, so I did not think much about it.

On Saturday morning, I prepared his favourite sausage in hotdog bun as his breakfast, and he was happily munching it. I was still thinking of getting out of the house for lunch, since I was also "clamped up" at home for the last few days. However, in a short while, Anna (our domestic helper) told us that she noticed some red spots on Luck Heng's palms. We took a closer look, and found some spots on his palms, more on the outside of his elbow and even more on the feet and on the soles. We started to suspect that he contracted HFMD, but of course we needed to get someone to verify it. When Luck Heng knew he could possibly get HFMD, he broke into tears, because his worst nightmare came true - somehow some time in the past he got the idea that once one gets HFMD, an injection is a must.

We would have brought him to our family doctor, the GP at the clinic downstairs. However, he is off on Saturday afternoons, so after lunch I brought Luck Heng to CompassPoint, to see the doctor at Raffles Medical Clinic. I managed to convince him that it is not really necessary for an injection, unless it is a very serious case. However, when we knocked on the door to enter the doctor's room, the first thing he said was still a calm: "不要打针hor!"

The doctor was slightly amused, but went on to do his job to check the rashes. He checked Luck Heng's mouth too and told me "Fullhouse Symptom". I asked what that means. He said, it means that all 3 areas that can possible show symptoms showed the symptoms. Interesting phrase to learn.

Anyway, there was nothing much we could do, except to wait out the few days when Luck Heng still has the rashes. Doctor gave him some lozenges for sore throat and vitamin C to strengthen his immunity. The only to do was to have a psuedo-quarantine where I take care of Luck Heng exclusively and Yoke Ping take care of Kang Heng exclusively. We were hoping to not get Kang Heng infected, but the doctor said Luck Heng was contagious even during the fever days, so if there was any damage, it would have been done.

True enough, Kang Heng was subsequently diagnosed with HFMD today, but that's story for another post, after I get some photos of Kang Heng's spots.

乌龟爬，白兔跳

2008-08-27T09:57:00.003+08:00

乐恒 - 龟兔赛跑

乌龟爬白兔跳
长长路比赛跑
小白兔很骄傲半路上睡着了
小乌龟不停爬到最后竟先到
小乌龟哈哈笑
小白兔羞死了

我是小金鱼

2008-08-27T09:50:00.004+08:00

乐恒 - 我是小金鱼

我是小金鱼游在池塘里
游过来游过去总是不适意
努力游努力游游到小河
一天又一天到达大海边

入浴图

2008-08-11T18:19:00.001+08:00

实在让人忍不住笑了起来

From: OhMyBaby.blogspot.com

Luck Heng celebrates National Day

2008-08-08T16:50:00.001+08:00

Luck Heng's teachers began to remind us a few days ago to don him in the national colours today. Luck Heng himself was very excited about celebrating National Day, although he still does not really understand what the day is for.

Last weekend, we brought him to Suntec City for our regular Saturday family outing. As the afternoon draws, Yoke Ping and I were planning for our activities later in the day. Suddenly an idea strucked me - since we were in the vicinity of the parade area, why not just spend a few more hours and watch the aerial displays and the fireworks at the National Day Parade preview? We hanged around for a longer-than-usual time in Toys-R-Us at SunTec, and proceeded to walk to Marina Square for our dinner at around 5.45pm.

When we walked past the lobby of the SunTec convention centre, we were surprised that the Army, Navy, Air Force and Police marching contingents were doing their drill right there. A crowd has gathered, and it was something that Luck Heng enjoyed watching. The drill ended around 6pm, and we continued our walk toward Marine Square. Found a restaurant where we could sit down comfortably to take dinner. It is a Japanese restaurant (cannot remember the name) that is located beside Billy Bombers at level 2. Food was so-so, but Luck Heng liked his noodles and finished his portion a lot quicker than usual.

The timing was perfect, because if Luck Heng takes his usual more-than-an-hour meal, we would not be able to make it to the open area of Marine Sq opposite the Esplanade by 7pm. As we walked out, the thunderous sound of the fighter planes flying overhead got Luck Heng excited. The aerial display was really breath-taking, especially the stunt where 2 planes fly towards each other and try to miss. Luck Heng was so amused with it that he keep saying the planes will crash into each other.

After the planes, there was a lull period of around 30 mins. Luck Heng was a little bored, but the wait was worth it. At around 8pm, the fireworks came on and it was brilliant. Luck Heng even commented that the fireworks was like bursting right in front of his face.

Luck Heng returned home a happy child that night, but he keeps on reminding us, that it was not National Day yet.....

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Correcting Calendars

2008-07-31T16:03:00.004+08:00

Take a close look at the calendar below:

Take another look at this second calendar below:

What do you see? The first calendar is a table calendar for 2008, with the months of 2009 printed behind the last page. The second calendar is a lunar calendar, which is organised around the months of the lunar calendar. Lunar dates are printed in one column, the day-of-week in a second column and the dates of the normal (Gregorian calendar) in the last column. See the next photo for a more complete view of the calendar.

Still cannot see anything out of the ordinary?

In any case, such things usually escape the notice of adults, but with the recent obsession that Luck Heng has with calendars (I think I will write another post about the number of calendars we have at home), and the way he scrutinises every calendar, Luck Heng was really quick to point out discrepancies in both the calendars.

When he was staring at the 2009 calendar, he exclaimed "How come May does not have 31 har?" That's when I told him to correct the calendar by scribbling the numerals '31' on it.

The lunar calendar was given to Luck Heng when mother found out that he was spending extra time in her master bedroom toilet after doing his small business. He was fascinated with a new calendar format and was asking me on the details of the lunar calendar. My mother gave him a spare copy of the calendar to bring home. I pasted it on the wall beside his other Pooh Bear calendar, and before I knew it, he was telling Yoke Ping, how come Feb does not have '29'.

If you return to the second photo, you will see the first blue-yellow-pink columns depicting the days within the months of the first lunar month this Year of the Rat. When it crossed from 28 Feb 2008 is a Thursday, and 1 Mar 2008 is a Saturday, but somehow the calendar missed out 29 Feb and 1 Mar to 7 Mar was shifted one day up.

It amazes me that he pays so much attention to details..... :)

Does Kang Heng look like the baby in the pics?

2008-07-25T16:46:00.005+08:00

Take a look at Kang Heng in the picture with Luck Heng, and then take a look at the two pictures below. Does Kang Heng resemble the baby in the pictures? Guess who the baby is. :)

Trip to Singapore Flyer

2008-07-21T13:57:00.001+08:00

Inside the Singapore Flyer capsule

During one primary school friends' wedding, we mooted the idea of organising a trip to the Singapore Flyer, bringing our kids.

It finally materialized last Saturday 19 Jul 2008. We were lucky that the queue was not long that day, and somehow we managed to get one capsule all to ourselves.

Here's a short clip showing the inside of our capsule, see how the children shout and run around, if there was anyone not from our group in the capsule, he/she would probably ask for a refund at the end of the trip!

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我不要很多很多

2008-06-24T16:56:00.001+08:00

有一次乐恒的婆婆买了一包OREO给他之后，乐恒就对那黑黑但中间夹着白色奶油的饼干情有独钟。

有一日，他如往常一般地在下午洗澡之后享用下午茶点，小盘子里的OREO三两下子就被他扫光。我看了他一下，他也若有所思地看了看我，约三秒后才开口说：“爸爸，我不要很多很多。”
我奇怪：“很多什么？”
“我不要很多很多很多很多很多…”
玉冰问：“你不要很多很多，那你要什么？”
他伸出右手三根手指，咧开沾满黑色饼屑的小嘴，说道：“我只要多三个OREO！”
我们不禁笑了。

Growing Pains

2008-05-23T17:34:00.002+08:00

Growing Pains

Luck Heng has been complaining about pains on the inside of his knees and elbows on several occasions previously. In the beginning, I was skeptical and thought that he was faking it. However, knowing Luck Heng's character (he seldom lies, knowing that I get angry when he does), there is a very low chance that he was faking.

For sometime, I also suspected if it was a mild case of gout. I have this condition, and I know that it is hereditary. However, every time he gets an attack, he would want either Yoke Ping and me to message the area that is painful. A gout patient would not want even the gentlest fingers on the sore area that is attacked, so it is not likely to be gout too.

Yoke Ping mentioned that she read something about growing pains in a mothers' magazine. Discussions with friends having kids around the same age led to us discover that a boy we know is also suffering from this. The symptoms sound the same, according to both mothers.

Two nights ago, he woke up at 4am crying in the middle of the night of the pain again. It went on for more than 30 minutes. We got very worried, and was wondering if we should send Luck Heng to a doctor.

Seeing Luck Heng suffer so much, I tried to search in the Internet to see what can be done to help him. Funny thing is that Google returned many entries for the TV Sitcom Growing Pains, and the article linked at the top of this post was somewhere lower down the entries.

The symptoms described again seems right: waking with crying in the middle of the night, and no pain at all come daybreak; wanting to have someone to soothe him when in pain etc. So there was actually nothing much we could do but to comfort and soothe him. To distract him from the pain, I do what I do when I have an acute gout attack - bring him to the TV. Luckily that helped a little, and by 6am he was jumping around saying that he wanted to wash up and brush teeth for the new day.....by 6.30am he was back on our bed fast asleep until 9am. He must have been very tired from the disturbed sleep, but was too "hyper" at 6am to want to go back to sleep...:)

The fortunate thing about growing pains is that it is not a serious problem and it will go away as he grows up. The unfortunate thing is that when it happens, there is really little we can do to help him. Let's hope this passing phase goes away sooner.

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Nose Drop

2008-05-22T18:30:00.001+08:00

Kang Heng got the cold, probably from his brother. Because he is only 2 months old, we were worried and brought him to our pediatrician the very next day after running nose and coughing kept him up one night.

The doc prescribed a nose drop for him to de-congest the nose. Nurse asked me whether I used the nose drop before, and my answer was that I should have used it before (when Luck Heng was an infant) but forgot about it now. She simply went through the dosage and the number of times I should be giving the nose drop to Kang Heng.

Back at home, we were trying to administer the nose drop. Yoke Ping carried the baby, while I tried to aim the nose drop into Kang Heng's nostril. I was quite a marksman during army time (despite my high myopia and being in Pes C2), but this required a different kind of aiming skills, since the target was constantly moving as a function of how uncomfortable Kang Heng was.

I managed half a drop inside his right nostril, but apparently the medication was too uncomfortable for him and he started to move about a lot, as if to avoid the second drop in the other nostril. After some struggling and aiming at the nostril (and NOT the mouth that was opening and tonguing all through the time), I had to give up and wait for the next time to try again.

When the time came for the second nose drop, out of coincidence I drop the droplet on the top wall of the nostril, just enough for him to inhale it into the nostril on the next breath. Seeing that this is a workable, and much easier way to administer the nose drop, I tried it again and the result was the same.

So we still learn something new every day with the second child. :)

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Baby brother in pink

2008-05-16T15:56:00.002+08:00

This photo attracted a comment from the ThinkPink group on Flickr to join them. Incidentally the reason we used pink for the rocker was that it is a hand-me-down which have served both baby boys and baby girls.

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Baby Rocker

2008-05-15T17:49:00.002+08:00

A gift from my friends from WP. Thanks, you know who you are.

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[Screaming Kids Alert] video taken when 2 kids come together....

2008-05-13T10:47:00.001+08:00

Embedded Video

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康恒来了！

2008-03-19T10:43:00.005+08:00

39週的期待之后，乐恒的弟弟康恒终于在昨天（3月18日）瓜瓜坠地了。

宝宝出世之后的其中一件事，当然是给他拍了一系列的照片，然后上载到网上与亲戚朋友分享喜悦。

到访的亲友中有几个人说康恒和乐恒有几分相似，我自己第一次看到康恒时也有这种感觉，所以从相片库里找出乐恒当年的相片作对比：


康恒	乐恒

你说呢？像吗？

18 March 2008

2008-03-01T05:33:00.002+08:00

When I met a friend recently, he was asking me when Yoke Ping was due for delivery. I gave to usual answer of "end March", but he carried on "caesarian or natural delivery". I explained that the doctor recommended caesarian for her after her first caesarian delivery of Luck Heng. Next question from my friend was "so you guys decided on a date?"

It did not occur to me until that time, that since we have decided on caesarian delivery, we could plan the date. On the following visit to the gynae, Yoke Ping and I went with some questions on whether we could choose a date, although we had no date in mind.

When we entered the doctor's room, he started: "So, due date is 25 Mar, that means 10 days later.....".

"You mean some date in Apr?" I asked, not really knowing what he was referring to.

"No, we are in Mar right?" doctor was puzzled by me, but I was more puzzled, didn't he say "later"?

"Here", he flipped the table calendar, "18 Mar is good."

"Ok." We were fine with whatever date he proposes, since we decided to follow his professional advice. But isn't 18 Mar 7 days before 25 Mar? And what 10 days was he referring to? We were more puzzled than he was, but that didn't really matter.

So he proceeded to make the necessary phone calls to confirm the date, and now we have a date to expect Luck Heng's sibling.

As we left the clinic, both Yoke Ping and I felt excited with the idea that we now have a confirmed date when the new baby will arrive. Previously the idea of end Mar was just a fuzzy feeling of not knowing exactly when the big day will come, like we know a project is about to launch, just don't know when.

Now the date is confirmed, feels a little like a fixed project launch date that will not change. So whatever we do, 18 March 2008 it is. :)

"Six Little Ducks"

2008-01-08T16:14:00.000+08:00

Actually the original song was titled "Five Little Ducks", Luck Heng suddenly announced that he wanted to sing "Six Little Ducks" during one of our family outing at the food court. We only remembered to video it down in the middle of his song. Enjoy!

New Year Eve's Party on 31st December 2007

2008-01-08T15:27:00.000+08:00

We organised a New Year Eve's party on the 31st Dec 2007 and invited some of our friends to our house. Jacee was the only kid around. Initially, they were playing separately. After dinner, they played toys and ate jelly together. Jacee was even reluctant to leave later in the night.

Xmas Party on 24th December 2007

2007-12-27T10:56:00.000+08:00

This year we have our annual Xmas party at auntie Aileen's place. When we reached the place, as we were one of the earlier ones, Luck Heng headed straight to a room full of toys and started playing with his cousin. After dinner, Luck Heng had a fun time serving guests with his toy food. Every one was laughing at his "seriousness" in cooking and washing the utensils.

During the cake cutting session, almost everyone took turns to take photos with Luck Heng and the Christmas log cake. After that, Luck Heng cut the cake with his great grandmother and cousins. Luck Heng and the cousins were asked to serve the adults before indulging in their own slices.

After eating his cake, Luck Heng kept asking me if it is now the gift presentation session. As Luck Heng is the youngest, he was in-charge of helping his great grandmother to distribute the present to everyone. Luck Heng gladly did so. When it was his turn to receive his present, he was first presented with 2 small triangular packets of M&Ms. Luck Heng received the gifts with a smile. This was followed by another big present, Luck Heng received it with a wider smile. Never did he expect, he was presented with a 3rd present, he was literally jumping with joy.

December Outings

2007-12-26T17:18:00.000+08:00

During this December school holidays, as usual, most shopping centers have cartoon charcter performances. We manage to catch 2 of them, that is, Sesame Street at Takashimaya and Thomas and Friends at AMKHub.

We were early when we reached Takashimaya. However, Luck Heng refused to queue up to watch the show in the audience area. So we just wandered around the merchandise store till the performance and managed to find a good site to watch the performance.

As for the AMK hub, we spent $50 to get a free ride on the Thomas and Friends train. Choong Yong had to queue patiently with Luck Heng for about 30 minutes for the 3-minutes ride. After that, Luck Heng requested to queue up for Thomas and Friends show this time. Furthermore, after the show, Luck Heng queued up alone to take picture with Thomas the train.

Goat Farm visit on 13 October 2007

2007-12-26T17:05:00.000+08:00

We went to Lim Chu Kang farms with our friends, with their kids in tow too. We went to quite a few farms: Goat Farm, Frog Farm, Koi Fish Farm, etc. The kids enjoyed the goat farm most as they can actually feed the goats. Somehow, we only managed to take a few photos in the goat farm.

More photos [here]

Luck Heng meets Doraemon

2007-12-26T16:47:00.001+08:00

On the 10th November, we bought Luck Heng to AMK Hub to meet Doraemon. It was a promotional event for the Doraemon movie. Luck Heng was thrilled when he sees the figure. He just followed the figure around the cinema premises until we have to pull him back.

More photos [here]

Cycling at East Coast

2007-12-26T15:49:00.000+08:00

On 15th December, we bought Luck Heng to East Coast Park. He suggested the outing early in the morning, saying that he wants to play with sand. Hence, we packed some of his sand playing equipment, extra clothings, bicycle and set up to the seaside. After playing a while on the sand, Luck Heng wanted to play with the sea water. We held on to his hand and stand at the beach, letting the wave come to us, just like the last round.

After that, Luck Heng wanted to cycle. This time, he finally mastered the art of cycling (paddling the wheels in full cycle).

I want an "O" from Santa Claus

2007-12-26T15:01:00.000+08:00

Recently from the Christmas song "Santa Claus is coming to town", Luck Heng learnt that Santa Claus will give presents to good, well-behaved kids. Two weeks before Christmas, he asked us how to spell "GOOD" and "NAUGHTY" using his Leap Frog Fridge Magnets. We told him as "GOOD" has two "O"s, he will not be able to make the word "GOOD". From then on, Luck Heng has been telling us that he wants an additional "O" from Santa Claus for his Christmas present.

In the end, we bought him Leap Frog's "Word Whammer Fridge Phonic Set" for his Christmas present. The great thing is that the magnetic letters work with both the Fridge phonic products.

康恒？欢恒？

2007-12-03T17:49:00.000+08:00

玉冰已有了近六个月的身孕，预产期在明年的三月中旬。医生扫描显示婴儿多半是个男生，但乐恒却一直坚持自己将有个妹妹。近来我们都在积极思索，为老二想个好名字。

希望名字能够延续乐恒“快乐永恒”的主题。曾经想用“悦恒”，但发现潮州发音不是很好听，所以只好放弃。我们见乐恒的身子前一阵子不是很好，想想希望孩子“健康永恒”也是一个好主意，所以“康恒”就成了选择之一。

昨晚我刚巧看到了亲戚给乐恒的小礼物，是北京2008奥运会的吉祥物-欢欢。心里灵机一动：“欢恒”意思好，念起来也不错。凑巧我看到乐恒坐在沙发上没事，就一时好玩，问他：

“乐恒，你喜欢弟弟的名字叫康恒还是欢恒？”

乐恒：“我喜欢妹妹啦！”

我：“好，那你喜欢妹妹叫康恒还是欢恒？”

乐恒（侧了一下头）：“康恒是男孩子咧，欢恒是女孩子咧！”

我和玉冰不禁笑了。

Kids-in-Charge on 25 August 2007

2007-10-25T11:55:00.000+08:00

This year, the Kids-In-Charge of the childcare was a bit disappointing. During last year, every class has a performance of what the kids have learnt in school. This year, there were no performance for both the toddlers and the playgroup class.

For Luck Heng's playgroup class, they started with showing us how they play with clay in the class. The kids are encouraged to design their clays with various tools like forks, straws, megablocks, moulds, etc. The rest of the time, we were told to watch the performances of the bigger kids. Hence, we went over to the nursery class. They were performing a "Sea Monster" dance. After watching the performance, the kids are encouraged to try dancing in the costumes. Luck Heng gladly ran out to give it a try. After the dance, he ran to the toddler class and joined in to play the colourful dough.

Outing at Vivocity on 8th Sept 2007

2007-10-25T11:27:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng, Maximos and Jacee had a great afternoon and evening at Vivocity. We started out meeting at the outdoor playground on the level 2 of Vivocity. Luck Heng enjoys the slides very much, he can play the slides repeatedly without getting tired of it. The only downside is that the playground gets very crowded on Saturday evening.

Next, we had a fabulous dinner at Shin Kushiya, a japanese restaurant. The children enjoyed the udon. While waiting for their parents to settle the bill, the 3 kids were running around outside the restaurant.

After the dinner, the parents were following the 3 kids around the mall, trying to avoid places with kiddy rides. However, the kids found a "buggy" parked at one of the corner of the mall and started playing around it. They also have fun riding on the chair in the mall.

More photos [Here]

Snakes and Ladders

2007-08-22T13:09:00.000+08:00

We recently introduced the 'Snakes and Ladders' board game to Luck Heng. He enjoys throwing the dice and moving his game piece. The board that we have is actually "Slides and Ladders", which probably interests Luck Heng more because he enjoys the slides at the playground. He does not mind losing the game and even claps his hands for the winner. The only thing he really dislikes is when we kick him back to position zero when our game pieces coincide, especially so when his game piece is near the finish point. Sometimes he feels so unhappy that he refuses to be kicked and we have to stop the game. We hope that he will overcome this and be more sporting.

Building with Lego

2007-08-22T12:48:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng has learnt to follow the instruction from the Lego booklet to build buildings, cars and ships. The only thing he dislike is to find the lego pieces from the big box.

He does have some self inventions too. Besides the numbers that he had built, he had also built the following "high chair".

Eating at Ichiban Boshi

2007-08-21T16:34:00.000+08:00

We used to like to eat at Sakae Sushi. We like the thick slices of salmon sashimi and Hana Maki. However, we find that though we enjoy the sashimi at Sakae Sushi, the kid's meal and the udon does not interest Luck Heng at all. He was not really interested in sushi as well.

Recently, we like to go to Ichiban Boshi for japanese meals. They have very interesting kid's meal set. Luck Heng's favourite set includes half a bowl of udon, 2 nuggets, 3 sausage, 2 egg sushi, 2 shrimp roe sushi, 1 bowl of pop corns, 1 small bag of gummy sweets and 1 packet of Doraemon yoghurt drink. All the food are presented on a toy aeroplane plate. Luck Heng gets very happy whenever he receives the set.

Besides eating his own meal set, Luck Heng also likes the chawanmushi. We also reserved the watermelon from our don set for him. I knew that he had learnt a lot of chinese songs in school about food. So after Luck Heng had finished his watermelon, I posed a question, "你可不可以唱一首西瓜的歌给我听？". Luck Heng began to roll up his eyes, thinking....then he asked me "西瓜的英文怎么讲？". I answered "watermelon"....and here goes his song....

两张桌子

2007-08-04T01:52:00.000+08:00

带乐恒到泰式餐厅吃饭，侍应生端上了一碗炸虾饼让我们在等菜时吃。虾饼入口爽脆，乐恒吃得津津有味。我一口，乐恒一口，（玉冰对零食一般上没有什么兴趣），很快的一碗虾饼就被我们解决掉了。乐恒问玉冰再要一碗，玉冰回答说：“一张桌子只有一碗。”没想到乐恒很快地指向我们的桌子说：“但是我们有两张桌子嘛！”

玉冰和我低头一看，才发现果然我们坐着的是由两张两人桌拼成的四人桌，只觉得啼笑皆非！

如意油

2007-08-04T01:17:00.000+08:00

从小，每当帮乐恒洗澡之后一定会帮他在肚子涂上如意油。我们常常会教乐恒那涂了肚子会温温的油叫“如意油”，但他总是念不对音，一直叫它“油一油”。

有一天我心血来潮，想看看如意油的英文是怎么拼。拿起一看，竟是：“U-I-Oil”。那另外一个牌子的来看，竟是：“Yu-Yee-Oil”。难道乐恒看懂瓶子上的英文字？？！！

My Big Tummy

2007-07-19T03:12:00.000+08:00

One day when I was helping Luck Heng with his daily shower, he started singing the "Heads and shoulders" song. So we went "Heads and shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes, knees and toes. Heads and shoulders knees and toes...", pointing to the part of the body as we sing, scrubbing it with soap.

At this point I forgot what came next, so I simply made up the next part: "...my big tummy!" , and made large circular motions on my tummy.

Luck Heng was tickled and continued to giggle as I made up the rest of the song "hands and armpits thighs and feet .... my big tummy! chests and elbows necks and cheeks .... my big tummy!"

Now I can really get Luck Heng to scrub himself clean all over his body, compared to his feather strokes on just his arms and legs....the wonders of a song and some creativity!

Visit to Singapore Science Center

2007-06-26T17:08:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng had no school on 22 June, Friday. We decided to go to the Singapore Science Center in the late afternoon, hoping to catch an IMAX movie at the Omni-Theatre as well. We reached the center at about 4pm. We bought the Science Center + IMAX movie package.

We were roaming around the atrium, trying to find something that will interest Luck Heng. We noticed that a Chemistry show was about to start and decided to sit in. Luck Heng sat through almost the whole session without much fuss. He clapped happily when he was supposed to clap and even raised his hand to volunteer (with encouragement from us) when he saw others doing so, although he had totally no idea what that was for. Towards the end, he announced "我要嘘嘘！" loudly and we carried him out hurriedly.

He enjoyed himself most in the Discovery Science section. He can hit pots loudly, view multiple images of himself in the mirrors, place the ball on top of the ramp and watch it roll down the "roller coaster", pump water, whisper and listen through the sound transmitting tubes and the mini slide.

We bought the 6pm "Dinosaurs: Giants of the Patagonia" tickets to the omni-theatre. It was a big mistake as Luck Heng announced that he was afraid after 2 minutes into the show when he saw a meteor is about to hit the earth (as if hitting on us). He kept grabbing his dad's hands to cover his eyes. We decided to leave at once.

We walked through the Kinetic Garden to the main entrance. At the entrance, we were all attracted to a complex structure carrying ball on tracks to hit various material to make melodic sound. (heee....we forgot what it is called).

Writing dot-to-dot numbers

2007-06-26T16:29:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng usually refused to write on his own. Even for dot-to-dot numbers, he would want us to hold his hands and write them together. Surprisingly one day, he took out one of his maths activity book and declared that he want to write.

He needs a lot of encouragement. Whenever he wrote off the dots, I had to say "You write beautifully, but next time remember to follow closely to the dots" and he will take the effort to write more neatly. I made a mistake once when I criticized that he wrote the number 7 badly and rubbed off his "7". After this, whenever he is to write the number 7, he just declared that he did not know how to and refused to write the number. I have to take note of it and remind myself not to do it again.

The crown on his head was made by his teacher, he liked it very much.

Elmo's Colouring Book @ Downtown East

2007-06-25T13:24:00.000+08:00

We brought Luck Heng and Kang Jung to the Elmo's Colouring Book concert at Downtown East last Saturday. Though Luck Heng did not understand the storyline, I think he did enjoy the songs and dance. We have to tell him the story throughout the concert. Whenever Elmo disappear from the stage, he would ask "Elmo leh, Elmo 在哪里?".

The theatre (De'Marquee) is quite small. I was thinking we could have bought the lower category tickets since the characters are so big and colourful that you can see it from the back. Furthermore, only the seats behind are raised. Though we bought the $45 tickets, the kids are blocked by the adults sitting in front. We have to let our kids sit on our laps and bags.

After the concert, Luck Heng led his dad to the ExplorerKids and told his dad that he wanted to play in there. We are surprised that he knows the place so well since he had only been there once. However, it was very crowded that day due to the June holidays and the concert. Luck Heng did not enjoy the gym as before.

Arranging Alphabets

2007-06-25T13:15:00.000+08:00

I remember Luck Heng never has the patient to arrange all the alphabets using either his floor mat or the fridge magnets. However, he did it recently without much fuss.

Motiono by dunpanic - Upload videos

Motiono by dunpanic - Upload videos

Wake UP!

2007-06-25T12:54:00.000+08:00

Waking Luck Heng up in the morning for school has never been easy. His dad says that I needed more creativity to wake him up, no use just shouting "Luck Heng Wake UP!". I tried buying him an alarm clock, it ended up as his toy. He would play it in the day, letting it ring when we are watching television. He would not even move a stir when I set the alarm clock to ring in the morning. A more effective way is to play his videos on the camera, he would wake up to watch the video upon hearing his own voice and laughter.

Motiono by dunpanic - Upload videos

Drinking Milk from the bottle

2007-06-25T12:17:00.000+08:00

We have tried to persuade Luck Heng to drink milk from his cup since he is 3 years old. We tried serving his milk in his cup. He would takes a few sips, run around to do other things, return to take a few more sips and then run off again. In the end, we still pour the milk back in to the bottle for him to finish it. When he drank from the bottle, he only took 2 mins to finish the whole bottle. Look how he enjoy drinking from the bottle:

Numbers with Lego

2007-06-25T12:04:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng like to build numbers with his Lego set. At first he would ask us to build all the numbers for him. After a few times, he decided to build it all by himself. He would need a little help from us for the numbers 2 and 5. Whenever he has finished building his numbers, he would ask me to take a photo of his work.

我一点点长大了！

2007-06-18T12:06:00.000+08:00

孩子总爱向大人宣称：“我长大了”，特别是在大人说类似“你还小，不能这个那个”的话时。有一次，乐恒和我就有了这种对话：
乐恒：我长大了。
我：你还没有长大，你现在几岁？
乐恒：（竖起右手的三根小指头）我三岁了！
我：要二十一岁才算长大吗。你现在三岁，要等四岁，五岁，六岁，七岁，八岁，九岁，十岁，十一岁，十二岁，十三岁，十四岁，十五岁，十六岁，十七岁，十八岁，十九岁，二十岁，二十一岁（念到连我也累了), 等很久很久。

乐恒听了这一番话，似乎在发呆，也不说什么。在接下来的几天，都听到他说：“我一点点长大了。”既然他说的也没错，我们也不以为然。

直到有一天，乐恒在和阿公阿嫲玩时，他又冒出一句：“我一点点长大嘛，要二十一岁才长大！”这时我才恍然大悟，原来他在听我念三岁到二十一岁时并不是在发呆，而是默默地消化我话中很久很久的意思。

这件小事一再地提醒我，孩子的吸收力实在很强，就算以为他们没有注意的时候，也不可以松懈下来，说出一些不应该让他们学的话语，让他们学到坏榜样。做人父母，谈何容易！

Lego Birthday Cake

2007-05-22T22:52:00.000+08:00

My birthday this year was a like a bad nightmare - with multiple deadlines crushing up altogether - totally no time to feel like it was a day to celebrate. Luckily my son made me a cake out of the Lego tiles he has and sang me a birthday song accompanied with a nice little dance.

我又初恋了

2007-05-07T17:22:00.000+08:00

Pardon me for the sensational title. It is the latest song that Luck Heng will sing at least once a day. This song is by a Taiwanese band group "五月天". Choong Yong is a faithful fan of the group. Recently the group launched a new album and the MTV of this song appeared so often on TV that Luck Heng can recognise the band when it is broadcast. On 13th April, we brought Luck Heng to K-Lunch. As usual, his dad choosed quite a few of the group's song. As Choong Yong was singing, Luck Heng was trying to mimic his dad's singing and action.

Motiono by dunpanic

Ever since the karaoke session, he sings this song every day. There was once when Choong Yong and I was talking about something and he caught us saying "难道...", he turned his head, looked at us with a smile and started singing "难道我又我又初恋了, 不可能我又我又初恋了..."

Beside this song, he also masters the following songs from the same group: "恋爱ing", "天使".

Jurong Bird Park

2007-05-07T16:45:00.000+08:00

On 1st May, we went to the Jurong Bird Park with Yin Pieu's and Jackson's family. Maximos, Jacee and Luck Heng manage to warm-up with one another at the Bongo's Burger restaurant when the parents are having their breakfast. Luck Heng did not enjoy watching the birds because most of the time he was pulling us away from the birds or hiding behind us. (remember his fears!). However, he enjoyed running around and playing with his 2 friends. He also liked the "Birds 'n Buddies" show at 3pm. However, he fell asleep during the "Birds of Prey" show at 4pm.

More photos [here]

Below is 2 video clips:

Motiono by dunpanic

Luck Heng was trying to tell Jacee to use the girl toilet

Motiono by dunpanic

你不要哭啊！

2007-05-07T15:55:00.000+08:00

Every morning, Luck Heng wears his shoes very slowly before he goes to school. In order to speed up the process, I have to threaten to press the lift button every day. After hearing that, he will quickly wear his shoes and stand up, waiting for me to open the door. He will then walk out of the door, turn back and look at me saying, "今天我按！". (Yah, he said that everyday). Then he will try to run to the lift as fast as possible, occasionally turn back and push me till I walk backward a few steps, and continue running towards the lift.

After he presses the lift button, he said "你不要哭啊！你不要哭啊！" *grin*
I pretend to complain "每天都是乐恒按,几时才轮到妈咪按?"
He will always reply "下次啦".

Ever since he learnt to press the lift buttons, he insists that he is the only one who can press the buttons. Initially we often forgot to let him press and he would ended up crying.

WAIT! Part I and Part II

2007-05-03T17:58:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng loves the alphabets, and now he learnt how to spell, he cannot wait to demonstrate it to us.

Motiono by dunpanic

Motiono by dunpanic

L.O.V.E. - the second four-lettered word

2007-05-03T17:37:00.000+08:00

As I was saying a few days ago, Luck Heng learnt 2 four-lettered words recently. As you already know, the word is LOVE. The word you see above is put together by him using his magnetic alphabets.

How did he learn this complex word? All thanks to the taiwanese band 五月天 - and the following song:

Now Papa, Mummy and son loves MayDay!

Very Nice!

2007-05-03T16:29:00.000+08:00

One of the evenings when I decided to give Yoke Ping a break from cooking, we brought Luck Heng to VivoCity and had dinner at the Swensen's restaurant. It was a more upscale restaurant compared to the rest of the Swensen's restaurants, with a higher price tag for the food too.

The food was not bad, and I liked the salad. Luck Heng expressed his fondness of the macaroni with cheese from the salad bar, in a very exaggerated manner:

Motiono by dunpanic

Luck Heng learns to spell his first word - four lettered WAIT

2007-04-28T18:23:00.000+08:00

Like all kids, Luck Heng is usually impatient. If he wants something, he wants it NOW, right now, this second, current moment, here and now! Many a times we really need a little more time, so I started to tell him to wait, and eventually to W-A-I-T. Soon enough, he learnt that the four letters make up the word 'Wait'. The next word he learnt how to spell is another four-lettered word, which I will cover in another post...

Numbers in Chinese

2007-04-10T16:12:00.000+08:00

Since the beginning of this year, we have gotten Luck Heng a lunar day-calendar. We told Luck Heng to tear off a piece each day to let him learn the concept of months, days, weekdays and weekends. This has been very successful as he is still eagerly doing so everyday till now. He knows that he has to go to school on weekdays and can stay at home to watch Doraemon during weekends.

We do hit some problems in some days when the lunar calendar will be coloured red due to a Chinese festival but it is still a school day. On last Wednesday (4th April), Luck Heng happily said that there is no school tomorrow as it is "red" (清明) tomorrow. We spent some time explaining to him that though it is red, there is school. Luckily, though he is still confused, he did not insist on not going to school the next day.

Luck Heng also recognises the numbers in Chinese as a result. He managed to arrange in order his flash cards correctly.

Marche@Vivocity

2007-04-10T15:58:00.000+08:00

We brought Luck Heng to Vivocity on the 17th March (heee..backdated again). Luck Heng likes Vivocity because he is able to see the ships, the monorails and the cable cars. We had our lunch at the Marche. Choong Yong and I had not been to the Marche for a very long time. We found the food variety quite limited and seemed to be more expensive. We only took the famous rosti with sausage, mushroom soup and some stir-fried vegetables.

We were allocated a seat near the "cable car". Luck Heng was not interested with the food at all. He kept requesting to sit in the cable car. We told him that he can only do so after he had his lunch and we finished ours.

Euro Fun Fair

2007-04-10T15:16:00.000+08:00

We brought Luck Heng to the Euro Fun Fair beside CompassPoint one of the weekday nights as he had obediently finished his dinner early and requested to go out. At first we intend to only go to the pasar malam and not the fun fair. After watching the rides on top of the overhead bridge, Luck Heng requested to ride on the catepillar (a very mild roller coaster). We gave in and bought some tokens for the rides. In the end, he took the following rides:
(1) Catepillar with CY
(2) Car (Formula 3000) alone
(3) Merry Go Round with CY
(4) Helicopter Go Round alone

Initially, I was a bit hesitant about letting him to ride the car alone. Choong Yong assured me that the speed was alright and he would walk in and carry him out if he was afraid.

In the end, we spent a total of S$25 on all the rides and did not go to the market as it was already past 2230. I was complaining to Choong Yong, with the same amount of money, we can buy 2 day passes in Genting and enjoy all the indoor rides.

Toilet Sign

2007-04-10T15:09:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng asked me this question one day at the foodcourt while waiting for Choong Yong to buy his food. 为什么女孩子的只有一个脚？

ExplorerKid

2007-04-10T14:20:00.000+08:00

Brought Luck Heng to ExplorerKid (an indoor playground in Downtown East) on the 31st March, together with my sister and her son Kang Jung.

At first, I thought I have to follow Luck Heng around the play area. However, much to my delight, Luck Heng just zoom off, climbing the play structures up to the top level all by himself, without even pausing to look where I am. My sister even exclaimed that Luck Heng seems to know the way so well that he can climb up to the top level in seconds. He would only come down and ask me to bring him to the toilet.

As seen on the photos, Luck Heng spent very little time in the ball pool, he prefers to climb the "tower". While waiting for Luck Heng, a staff approach me to do a survey. After completing it, we were given an additional hour to play free. Luck Heng had a really good time there.

After that, Choong Yong came and fetch us to Globetrotters for dinner, our first time too. We were lucky to get a table on the weekend night without prior booking. Personally, I do not fancy the food there and the serving time is slow. Luck Heng surprise us by insisting that he wants a burger. He never tasted one before and he had not been very adventurous with food. Nevertheless, we ordered one from the kids menu. He took bites off the burger while Choong Yong was holding on to it. Before Luck Heng finish eating, my sister already brought Kang Jung into the play room. Choong Yong and I were waiting for Luck Heng to request to go into the playroom. Luck Heng only requested it after he declared he had enough of the burger and drank several mouthful of water. We let him played in the playroom while we ordered our desserts.

Fears

2007-03-16T17:52:00.000+08:00

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as Fear is in the mind of the one that fears. Fear is a funny thing, really, it is all in the mind sometimes, that's why people say one can outgrow certain fears.

Luck Heng has discovered a number of fears lately. The most obvious one was when he was rudely shocked awake by the loud echoes of motorbikes roaring along the road beside our block of flat at 3am. He woke up crying for us, and since then he would always demand "Pa Pa, pat pat!" when he goes to bed, adding "motorcycle 大大声，乐恒怕怕". After that he would really show fear when he hears a hint of motorcycle engine at night in the room, and needed our comforting. Luckily it has got better now, and he seems to be conveniently use this as an excuse to make me accompany him to sleep. Guess he has come to terms to the not-so-loud ones, although there are still some occasions when he again was scared by the really loud noises.

During the Chinese New Year period, we showed Luck Heng what Lion Dance is. Initially he was quite resistant to it, as lion dances are also accompanied with loud noises. Somehow, during one of the opportunities when we get to see lion dance up close, I manage to play down his fear by showing him it is actually quite fun to watch the lions prancing around. He accepted the lion dance, and now would even tell you he likes to watch them ... but preferably on TV. *hiak*

The next fear is something that I don't really understand, and I really hope that Luck Heng will outgrow it in time. You see, when we go to public toilets, most of the time the toilet bowl / urinal is too high, and we will have to carry Luck Heng a little so that he can reach the toilet bowl /urinal. He refers to such toilet fixtures as "高高的". Given a chance, he would go for the kiddy size ones which are just at his height, those that he dubs "矮矮的".

During one outing, Yoke Ping brought him to the toilet (I was busy doing something else), and had to settle for the higher toilet bowl. Luck Heng took a little longer than usual to let out his urine, and the timer mechanism of the automatic flush system flushed the toilet bowl just as he was about to pass urine. He was shocked, and insisted that he is already done with his business. It took some coaxing before he agreed to pee again, but at another toilet bowl, and never the one that "attacked" him.

After this incident, whenever he approaches a toilet bowl, he would confirm with us whether the flush is automatic, and if it is, he would quickly dash away at the instance immediately after he finishes passing urine (with his pants almost always still at his knees), fearing that the urinal or toilet bowl would attack him again. We tried to explain to him that it was just water, but we could see the fear in his eye.

Encountering fear, understanding it, and overcoming it is part and parcel of the growing up process. I believe the more he understands the world, the more things that he can possibly be afraid of. Hopefully he can understand and overcome most of them, since fear is just in the mind.

Luck Heng's 3rd Birthday

2007-03-12T16:41:00.000+08:00

Backdated post on 2nd March 2007

Before his birthday, Choong Yong had told Luck Heng that we are going to buy him a Superman cake and bring it to his school to celebrate with his friends. Luck Heng smiles and likes the idea. Off we went to a Bengawan Solo outlet to book his Superman cake, we choose the "S for Superman" cake which has a unique "S" emblem shape. When we told Luck Heng later what we have chosen from the brochure, he kept insisting that he wanted another design. Luckily we manage to change it the very next day via a phone call.

Luck Heng was happy when he saw us during their tea time. We are glad that we can join in the birthday celebration as we seldom had the chance to see how Luck Heng interacts with his classmates.

2nd day of CNY

2007-03-12T16:19:00.000+08:00

Backdated post on 19th February 2007

Jacee and Maximus (and their parents) visited us on the 2nd day of CNY. Most of the time, the parents were busy asking their children to share toys, trying to resolve any conflicts between the kids. The children were not interested in the dinner, they just took a few mouthful and busy running back to their toys again.

After dinner, we let the kids play while the parents are busy capturing the precious moments on their mobile phones and cameras. We have to tone down the children once in a while as they can get a bit carried away, making a lot of noise.

Motiono by dunpanic

Another video here

Chinese New Year

2007-03-12T13:20:00.000+08:00

Backdated post 18th February 2007

We manage to find 2 sets of shirt with the same colour and design from OP. I went into the shop with the intention of finding more clothes for myself. However, it ended up with the guys getting 2 new shirts. They wore the shirts on the first day of CNY.

A day in IMM

2007-03-12T12:52:00.000+08:00

Backdated post on 20th January 2007

We visited the renovated IMM. A lot of shops have been shifted and there is still some renovation going on. There is a whole lot of new shops and restaurants added on the ground level.

We noticed a huge Ajisen doll outside the Ajisen noodle restaurant and told Luck Heng to pose with the doll. He gladly did so. When we walked past the playground at IMM, Luck Heng did not request to play, only watched at the side quietly. After we told him to go in, he happily join in the fun.

After much fun playing at the playground, Luck Heng was so tired that he fell asleep at the restaurant. We were dining at Cafe Cartel, Luck Heng started to lean his head on the wall while chewing his noodle. He fell asleep finally after a few bites.

Gong Xi Gong Xi

2007-02-23T17:36:00.000+08:00

What is Chinese New Year without the traditional Gong Xi Gong Xi song?

Luck Heng learnt it in time for the festive season, and here's him wishing you good luck times 10!

Motiono by dunpanic

CNY song

2007-02-12T17:38:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng can recognise and sing along some of the CNY songs which his dad plays in his car. The following is recorded during a car ride home.

Click Here to listen(296kb)

Playing at the seaside

2007-02-12T16:08:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, we brought Luck Heng to East Coast. Ever since he saw an episode of Elmo's World on the topic 'bicycle', he has been asking us to bring him to cycle. Finally after all of us recover from our illness, we decided to fulfil his wish. We rented a kid bicycle for an hour. He does not know how to cycle yet. He paddled half a cycle forward, half a cycle backward, half a cycle forward, etc. Choong Yong and I strolled along with him, one on each side, to prevent him going off the course. He really enjoyed his 1-hour ride.

After the exercise, we found a place to sit down and relax while enjoying the sea breeze. I suggested letting him play with the sea water.

After playing with water, Luck Heng kept saying "要回家休息了". We thought that he must be tired and wanted to go home to sleep. However, when he reached home, he started playing with his toy and slept at 12+am.

See-Saw Song

2007-02-12T16:01:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng enjoys singing and playing with musical instrument. He would pretend that he is playing the tune correctly and sing along. This is a clip of him playing his xylophone and singing a song about see-saw. We could not figure the lyrics of the whole song, he probably learnt it from school.

Summary of Events

2007-02-08T11:58:00.000+08:00

It has been so long since our last post. We have been too lazy to blog. During these few weeks, we have been taking turns to fall sick, fever, cough, gastric flu. I can only say that we are lucky not to be sick together, at least we can take turns to take care of one another.

October 8, 2006 - My BIL's wedding
We found a small suit for Luck Heng for the dinner. It consist of a white shirt, vest, long pants, suspender, a jacket and a sport shoe. Everyone was praising him the whole night. [More Photos]

Early December, 2006 - KL/Genting Trip
We finally brought Luck Heng out of Singapore, a 3D2N trip to KL and Genting with my parents and brother. Before the trip, we were wondering how to keep Luck Heng entertained on the bus journey. However, in the end, Luck Heng slept like 80% of the time in the bus. We stuffed him with tibits and sang with him when he was awake. He enjoyed the hotel stay and Genting cable car rides (4 times). In Genting, we bought a day pass and took all the rides that are suitable for him. [More Photos]

24 December, 2006 - Christmas Celebration
This year we had a Christmas pot luck with our family and relatives together. All the kids received Christmas gift. Luck Heng and his cousins had a small dispute over his present. First we have to persuade Luck Heng to let his cousins play with his presents. When he finally agreed to share, he started to insist that they should play in his way.

Translating this site into Chinese?

2007-01-03T15:10:00.000+08:00

I was going through the statistics for this web site today, and discovered that someone was viewing this site through Google's translation service. Check it out at http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=zh-CN&sl=en&u=http://happyeternally.blogspot.com/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dete

At one glance, the translation looks passable, but when you read the paragraphs carefully, you will find that the translation is really quite bad. Sometimes the meaning is flipped on its side. I had a good laugh reading the translation, go try reading it.

Goodbye Dr Toh

2006-11-22T04:42:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng has been falling ill frequently ever since he joined the childcare centre in Dec 2005. We have been bringing him to Dr Toh Wai Keong, the GP that operated the clinic just downstairs of our block of flat, and who happened to be the husband of a good friend of both Yoke Ping and I.

To me, he represents a different kind of doctor. He is the kind that takes the time to listen to you describe your symptoms, and will patiently explain the diagnosis and treatment to you. Consultations with him felt more like telling a friend about pains and fever, and the friend gives you expert advise on what to do about the problem. To our family, he is more than just a medical service provider, he is a family friend.

I believe to a lot of other people he is also more than just a doctor. And the testimonial to this can be seen by the number of people affected by the news of his sudden death. (http://www.todayonline.com/pdflive/2111HNR003.pdf)

We received a call from his wife on Saturday morning, telling us that Wai Keong passed away peacefully in his sleep on Friday morning, when she was trying to wake him up. It caught me by surprise. Just so sudden. Both Yoke Ping and I were falling sick this week. I tried to go see him on Tuesday because I was coughing really badly on Monday, but the crowd at the clinic made me change my mind. Yoke Ping tried to see him on Friday morning, but the clinic was already closed.
Guessed we were not fated to see him again.

The media paid quite a considerable amount of attention on the news of his death, since it is already the fourth case in a month where someone passed away in his sleep. Today the TV news showed footage of his photo, and we asked Luck Heng whether he recognised the person on TV. Luck Heng smiled with recognition and said "Dr Toh." When the TV news switched to another screen, Luck Heng smiled again and said "Dr Toh, no more."

Yes, Dr Toh, no more, but we will remember you, both as a friend and as our trusted family doctor.

Goodbye Wai Keong. Goodbye Dr Toh.

Dining at Siam Kitchen

2006-10-09T15:07:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, Mummy decided to take a break and we had dinner outside. We went to Siam Kitchen @ Hougang Mall. There was a $2.90 Children Day meal. We ordered it for Luck Heng. It consists of Pineapple rice, Mixed Vegetable, Prawn Crepe, a Fried Chicken Wing, a Yakult drink and a scoop of ice-cream. Before the meals were served, Daddy and Luck Heng were enjoying prawn crackers.

During dinner, Daddy showed Luck Heng a small corn and said
Daddy: 乐恒，这是玉蜀黍。
LH: 一，二，三，四，五。

[Daddy's comments]: LH probably thought that I was saying: 乐恒，数数。 :)

School trip to the Animal Resort

2006-10-09T12:01:00.000+08:00

We never hear Luck Heng talk about his friends from childcare. We only know that he knows his classmates' names. During end September, his school invited the parents to a school excursion to the Animal Resort with the kids. We saw a lot of animals like the goat, pony, rabbit, iguana, black swan, crown pigeon, goose, peacock, etc. Luck Heng laughed heartily when the goat licked its food off his hands.

However, what benefited us most was when we saw how Luck Heng communicated with his classmates. We learned from the teacher that Luck Heng likes to mix with the boys in the class. There was only one boy classmate who went to this excursion. When they were together, they imitated each other alot. They jumped together, shouted at each other and followed each other around. Below is a small clip that shows how they communicate, it looks like they were in a heated argument.

Luck Heng carrying school bag

2006-10-09T11:50:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng carrying school bag,
originally uploaded by chongyp.

We usually carry LH's schoolbag for him as it is too big for him. However, he decided to carry his own school bag on his way home one day. I wondered if he figured that it is easier to carry it in front or he was trying to imitate my sister carry Kang Jung using the baby carrier.

Creating shapes

2006-10-02T17:16:00.000+08:00

Creating shapes,
originally uploaded by chongyp.

Recently, Luck Heng likes to make shapes with these phonic alphabet magnets. Can you identify the Square, Diamond, Pentagon and Triangle?

Zebra Crossing

2006-10-02T17:04:00.000+08:00

Zebra Crossing,
originally uploaded by chongyp.

Luck Heng has been obssessed with zebra crossing.

Whenever our car stops by the traffic light, he will look around for one and if he spots it, he will exclaim "斑马线"!!!

Every night, he will ask me to carry him to the window. Whenever something goes pass a zebra crossing, he will say "Car car 走过斑马线", "Taxi 走过斑马线", "Van 走过斑马线" or "有人过斑马线"

One day while Luck Heng was doodling, I decided to teach him how to draw one. He was delighted after he finished his work. :P

Luck Heng and Cousin Kang Jung

2006-10-02T16:32:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng and Cousin Kang Jung,
originally uploaded by chongyp.

Luck Heng has not been lying under this bear gym since long long ago. However, when his cousin Kang Jung comes to our house and plays with it, he decides to join in the fun.

Luck Heng and Hexagon

2006-08-10T11:41:00.000+08:00

We bought this small wooden puzzle at a Pasar Malam some months ago for $2, thinking maybe it might be too complicated for Luck Heng. In the beginning, he could not even understand which piece goes where.

Gradually, he got the hang of the puzzle, and was able to place the correct pieces in the right place at increasing pace. He was fond of calling giving names to the shapes, so we taught him the simpler Circle and Square. Eventually we also taught him Hexagon. He was so fascinated with the name that he simply calls this toy Hexagon, and when he wants me to play the puzzle (while he plays other puzzles), he would call out to me "Papa! Hexagon!"

Drumming Session

2006-08-10T11:39:00.000+08:00

Just realised that I did not post this video at this blog after uploading it to YouTube. This was taken during the Portugal vs Iran match in World Cup 2006. Parents are watching the match together while Jacee and Luck Heng had their own fun drumming on the stool. Maybe they were trying to match the sound of the drums coming from the stadium audience.

月亮, Star, Pentagon and the Singapore Flag

2006-08-06T17:38:00.000+08:00

Yoke Ping brought Luck Heng home from childcare one day, while it was still bright daylight. Luck Heng pointed at a general direction, and said “月亮”. Yoke Ping told me about the incident, and I thought, it is probably the crescent on the Singapore Flag, which is now displayed everywhere around us.

When we attended the childcare's short presentation of the upcoming course plans, there was one flag hanging just right in front of us. Luck Heng pointed at the Singapore Flag one day and said "Star!". Of course there were stars on the flag, but his next comment came as a surprise: "Pentagon!"

Can you spot the pentagon?

Lesson learnt: alternative perspectives are not wrong, they just take a longer time to be seen by most people.

Klacid

2006-07-28T02:00:00.000+08:00

We finally found a way to get Luck Heng to take the anti-biotic!

During the first two attempts this time round, we mixed Klacid and Ribena in almost equal portions before using a syringe to feed him the mixture. That was a complete failure, leading to one incident where he threw up the Klacid that was fed to him, in addition to the night feed of milk that was also still in his stomach.

We could not just simply decide to stop giving him the medicine though, since it is an anti-biotic. Last evening we tried again, but varied the proportions. 4ml of Klacid vs half a cup of Ribena. After stirring with a spoon, the granules spread around in the liquid, and there was only a slight tinge of the repulsive smell.

We fed him the mixture, and after the first sip, his facial expression told us that he was still able to tell that the mixture contained something wierd. However, the flavour of the large proportion of Ribena helped to make it more palatable for Luck Heng, and we were lucky that he continued to down the liquid until there was just a small amount left in the cup.

We tried again the next 2 times, and everytime he seems to know something was amiss, but decided not to make a fuss out of it and obediently downed the half-a-cup of Ribena+Klacid mixture.

Mycoplasma & Klacid

2006-07-26T11:14:00.000+08:00

Mycoplasma? Never heard of, can eat or not? :)

Apparently this is a general term for something that is somewhat like a bacteria, but not really a bacteria. The gory technical details can be found at Wikipedia, but I am technical in the wrong area to understand it.

It started last week when Luck Heng started to have a fever. We treated it as a usual fever with the usual fever medication, but he only seemed to recover on Monday, just to get worst the same day. He was basically not his usual cheerful self, and was crying for the slightest reasons.

We went to the GP downstairs again on Monday evening, but found out that Dr Toh was on reservist, and a replacement doctor continued to give Luck Heng medication and some anti-biotics. He also mentioned if Luck Heng did not get well within 2 to 3 days, he would probably give us a referral to a pedaetrician.

We came home and did some research, finding that Luck Heng's symptom resembled that of dengue fever a lot: pro-longed fever, irratability, loss of appetite, rashes, joint pains. We got worried, and decided not to wait for the 2 to 3 days, and to go to our pedaetrician at Mt Alvernia the next day to get a blood test.

Dr Simon Ng was as usual very meticulous in his examination and we give him an account of Luck Heng's recent symptoms, and also our worry of it being dengue fever. He said that the symptoms resemble dengue fever and something called mycoplasma (at that point we thought it was 'microplasma'), and arranged for blood tests for both of these conditions.

The blood test was performed in a lab at the ground floor of Mt Alvernia. I was expecting the usual long syringe needle inserted into Luck Heng's vein (like how it was done for adults), but was pleasantly surprised that the nurse basically pierced a little hole in his finger and dripped the blood into a vial while attempting to distract Luck Heng with pictures on the wallpaper. Luck Heng did not get very distracted, and caught glimpses of what the nurse was doing. Good thing is that he was quite calm throughout the process, and left the lab without shedding a tear.

I received a phone call from the PD in the afternoon telling me that the blood test results indicated negative for dengue fever, but was positive for mycoplasma. Earlier, the PD prepared a prescription for Klacid, an anti-biotic that is supposed to treat mycoplasma, so I went to the Guardian Pharmacy at CompassPoint to fill out the prescription.

Generally, Luck Heng is very obedient when it comes to taking medicine, and will always sit calmly and take in the medicine we give him. This is NOT the case for Klacid. Klacid has a very strong pungent smell (I wonder why they don't make it pleasant for the kids) that even Yoke Ping and I find repulsive.

Previously when Luck Heng was prescribed Klacid, we have the experience of trying to "cheat" him into taking it by mixing it with fruit juice as suggested by the doctor. It did not work well, as the smell of Klacid overcame the smell of the fruit juice. This time, we devised a plan of mixing Ribena (which has become Luck Heng's favourite beverage lately) with Klacid, administering it with a syringe, and offering him Ribena without Klacid as a "reward" after evey mouth full.

We quietly prepared the concoction of Klacid + Ribena, and called out to Luck Heng to come take medicine. As usual, he cooperated and opened his mouth for the medicine. However, his face changed immediately upon tasting the mixture. We tried to force the medicine with the syringe into his mouth, but the end result was a wailing child crying his heart out. We felt tremdendous heartache at this, but had no choice. Let's hope Klacid really works for him.

Pausible Crying

2006-06-25T17:45:00.000+08:00

Toddlers have this incredible ability to throw tantrums, cry at the top of their lungs, and pause for a short TV moment, before carrying on with the crying. Luck Heng is no exception.
You hear him wailing "Mummy wei" continuously, not because he wants his mummy feed him anything, but because he takes that the verb "wei" to mean to "do something", in this case, he wants his mother to hold on to the umbrella while playing with him.

Enjoying a drink of Yakult

2006-06-25T17:43:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng recently discovered that Yakult is a delicious drink. See how he enjoys the drink!

Luck Heng loves to read?!

2006-06-25T17:42:00.000+08:00

During one trip to a mall , Luck Heng walked infront of us and led us to the library in the mall. This being his first visit to this library branch, it beats me to think how he knows the children section is. He climbed onto a seat and started to flip through books within his reach.

Cleanliness it top priority

2006-06-25T17:41:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng is very fond of the phrase "diu diao" which means to throw away in Mandarin. This was taken during a first-month party at a friend's place, and Luck Heng was busy with throwing away used paper cups.

理发记

2006-05-20T17:03:00.000+08:00

乐恒第一次理发是在他四个月大时。之后，每一次的理发都是一场的大哭。

照片是在他十个月大时拍的。那时的他对镜头特别敏感，只要照相机对准他，一定会破涕为笑，所以我们带上了法宝才把他牵到理发店去。

上个星期天，我们又把他带到理发店去。现在的他反而不会对镜头笑，所以我只有做好心理准备，像以往几次一样，尽量把嚎啕大哭的他稳定在我怀里，好让理发师傅趁时机剪发。这次我们到了盛港中心康柏坊（CompassPoint）的马来理发店。

理发师傅看到了乐恒，问：“他可不可以自己坐?”
“没有试过,试试看吧。”
师傅拿起了一块木板，架在供大人坐的理发椅上。
我把乐恒放了上去，乐恒呆呆地看住我，似乎在打量到底发生了什么事。
在理发店的另一端，一名与乐恒年龄相仿的男童已经在放声为自己失去的头发大哭。玉冰和我心里都在默默盼望乐恒不会受影响。
理发师傅把一块布铺在乐恒身上，用小夹子一夹，就开始剪了。
乐恒并没有预料中的反抗，反而是乖乖的静静坐在那儿。

我们心里都暗暗的欢喜，但知道不能开心得太早。时间一分一秒的过去，乐恒还是非常合作。
在观察乐恒理发的过程时，我也突然感觉到乐恒似乎已经明白乖乖坐着的重要性了。有一种感觉，他好像在这一方面已经比前几次成长了。

理发师傅非常细心的剪，约二十分钟才完成。

我们欣慰地牵着乐恒的手离开，带着的不只是头发整齐的乐恒，而更是在成长路上跨出了另一步的乐恒。

世上只有妈妈好

2006-05-20T16:36:00.000+08:00

Click to view larger photo,
originally uploaded by dunpanic.

一天，玉冰在整理乐恒带去上学的包包时看到了这一张卡片。想必是乐恒的老师在班上指引乐恒做的。

或许乐恒现在还不了解母爱，但看到这张里面有他的手印的卡片，也是窝心的。

March Babies Meet up

2006-05-20T16:07:00.000+08:00

Maximos, Luck Heng and Ryan

Luck Heng and Ryan doodling

Last Saturday we had a small gathering at Ryan's home in Singapore. They are back in Singapore for a short break, and we took the opportunity to have a gathering for the March Babies (by now we should call them March Toddlers).

A nice 3 hours spent where the parents exchanged interesting stories about each of the kid. One thing I noticed is the fact that every kid develops in his own pace. Ryan is really quite good in the linguistics department, being able to express his thoughts pretty clearly to adults in short sentences. Maximos is now fully toilet trained, so much so that he now does not want to pass urine even with diapers on, unless he absolutely cannot hold on anymore. Luck Heng has a good pencil-grip when holding crayons/color pencils to doodle, and does it pretty well with both left and right hands.

Each child has an area that he is good at, and at the same time another area that he is slow in, but I think what's important is all of these kids are happy, and have parents that love them dearly. :)

Luck Heng and the alphabets

2006-04-25T16:17:00.000+08:00

Luck Heng has been spending the last week at home recovering from the stomach flu he got from his child care centre. During this time, he start to play a lot with the Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set from LeapFrog, and also learnt to match the alphabets to the play mat on the ground.

He is enjoying doing this so much that he would just walk over to the magnetic letter set, and start performing the matching on his own, without needing either Yoke Ping or I near him.

Notice how he compliments himself after each succesful match of an alphabet, by clapping his hands and saying "Good Boy!". Enjoy!

Burst of updates

2006-04-15T03:42:00.000+08:00

Have not been updating this blog for quite a while. It has been quite hectic for us these two months, as Luck Heng was down with illness a large part of the time. The pattern is something like he getting a fever bug, spend a few days at home, go back to child care, get something else one or two days later, stay at home, go back and get something else again. The cycle repeated a number of times, and the latest round is just this week on Tuesday.

There is a communication booklet that the childcare centre places in his schoolbag so that parents like us can be informed of news from the childcare centre. Yoke Ping notice a note on Tuesday evening that there was 3 cases of stomach flu reported in the childcare centre as of Monday. On the same evening, Luck Heng threw up after refusing to each much during dinner, and Yoke Ping brought him to the doctor's immediately. Doctor deduced that Luck Heng contracted the contagious stomach flu too, based on the symptoms and the fact that there are reported cases in the centre. I was out that evening, but by the time I rushed home after receiving the second phone call from Yoke Ping, Luck Heng had already threw up 3 or 4 times.

Poor kid, sick most of the last 2 months, but luckily he is still quite cheerful as long as he is not feeling uncomfortable from the illness. In fact, he seemed well during the day on the next day, but turned lethargic some time into the evening, and threw up again.

This time around, Yoke Ping caught the bug from Luck Heng, and has been down with a slight flu since Wednesday. Yoke Ping's mother came to help take care of Luck Heng during the day time, and caught the bug too, landing her with a more serious flu than Yoke Ping's. I had a bout of body aches today too, but luckily sleeping through the day helped.

Good news is that Luck Heng does look like he is on his way to recovery now, and I hope that this time after his return to the childcare centre, all will be well.

With Papa and Mummy at Raffles Marina

2006-04-15T03:25:00.000+08:00

Click to view larger photo,
originally uploaded by dunpanic.

Yoke Ping's cousin held her wedding dinner at Raffles Marina. We went there earlier and took a stroll along the waterfront. Nice sunset, but I guess Luck Heng does not know how to appreciate it.

Toddler Idol?

2006-04-15T03:24:00.000+08:00

Click to view larger photo,
originally uploaded by dunpanic.

Probably a result of the influence of TV, but lately Luck Heng is really fond of using make-believe microphones while singing songs.

In addition to using the 'microphones' himself, since there are ten pins in the toy bowling-pin set, he would distribute 'microphones' to Yoke Ping, myself, and even his grandmother, insisting that we should hold the mic to our mouths too.

In any case, his songs are still made up of some recognisable syllables mingled with unrecognisable mumbles, but at least the melodies sound close enough for us to be able to identify the songs that he is singing.

Slide at Kiddy Palace Marina

2006-04-15T03:19:00.000+08:00

Click to view larger photo,
originally uploaded by dunpanic.

This is taken on the same day as the "Fishball noodle is delicious" photo. After the lunch at the food court for Luck Heng, I brought him around the mall and he discovered a slide at the Kiddy Palace on the 3rd level. He spent some time on it before I got bored and led him on to other parts of the mall.

However, since we were not really shopping but was just walking around the mall, after an hour or two we completed one round of the mall and ended up at this slide again. The happy little kid again went to take a number of rides down the slide.

Later on the same day, after meeting up with Yoke Ping (after her friend's lunch wedding reception ended), we decided to go to Kiddy Palace to buy some stuff for Luck Heng, so again the kid gets to play on the slide.

That's 3 visits to the slide on one day, no wonder he was really a very happy kid at the end of the day!

Fishball noodle was delicious

2006-04-15T03:04:00.000+08:00

Click to view larger photo,
originally uploaded by dunpanic.

On one Sunday Yoke Ping had to attend a wedding lunch reception at Pan Pacific Hotel. We decided to go th Marina Square around lunch time, and I will look after Luck Heng while waiting for the function to end.

Yoke Ping was quite worried whether I could handle Luck Heng on my own, as this little brat sometimes throws quite a tantrum. Luckily, I was able to bring him around the new Marina Square mall with little problem.

First thing after saying bye bye to Mommy was to head towards the food court to settle Luck Heng's lunch. I bought fishball noodle for Luck Heng, and he sat patiently on the chair (look, he does not need a high chair any more!) for the delicious noodles.

Luck Heng's birthday present from Papa and Mummy

2006-04-15T03:00:00.000+08:00

Click to view larger photo,
originally uploaded by dunpanic.

Birthday present from Yoke Ping and I to Luck Heng for his 2-yr-old birthday. He enjoys the music when he places one of the alphabets into the green slot and depress the alphabet.