Sticking thing up her nose

Yesterday I came home late after ladies sharing and BS, but i still got to listen to my mil recount the day's dramatic events.

Well, after lunch while my mil was eating lunch in the kitchen and Eliza was playing her toys in the living room. Eliza came running to her saying "I can't breathe" (I'm surprised she even said that phrase!) of course this made my mil anxious and she eventually found out that the candle tip from her cake toy came off and Eliza curiously stuck it in her nostril!

So my MIL and SIL tried to help her get it out. The tweezers were too big, and even asking her to blow her nose didn't help. Eventually they found an ear-digger stick and slowly shifted it out. All the while Eliza calmly let them get the little red plastic candle tip out of her nostril. And with a little help from Eliza to blow her nose, it finally came out.

Later on my MIL chided her and reminded her that she should never ever stick small things in her nose or ear or mouth.
In response to all that, Eliza replied, "I put in my eye" -__-

Great, my little one is getting cheekier with her words.

( oh and this is not the first time Eliza has stuck something small in. The last time she stuck a soya bean and a green bean in her ear. The green bean came out quit easily, but not the soya bean. I can't remember what my FIL did to get it out)

Anyway, My MIL concluded that Eliza's just too cheeky and too giak xiao. My sil said nothing like this happened to her 3 sons either. Oh well, that's Eliza for you! She surprises us always. :)

Sleep talking part 2

Eliza tend to rouse around 12midnight to 1am and in before that she tends to sleep talk. Usually we hear it when we're in the room..though nowadays, it seemed to be much louder.

On one of the nights when i was staying up, i heard her call out "Where's mummy?" which she would do if she is sufficiently awake and don't find me in my bed. So i answered from the study that i'm coming while i turn off the computer, thinking i'll go to bed anyway, since it's so late. I found her fast asleep when i went into the room to check. So was she sleeping or awake?

Oh and i'm starting to wonder if she has started to have nightmares / night terrors....she'll suddenly wake up crying really loud and somehow seem inconsolable. Though it could be that she was feeling bloated and it is really uncomfortable. Tonight i rubbed some ruyi oil and it seemed to help. It happened on other occasions..just that this time she was saying "i don't want, i don't want". Maybe a mix of both eh?
Still pray she'll sleep well and not have bad dreams.

National day weekend

Eliza has been sick for at least 3 weeks. In between there was a few days of no runny nose or fever etc. And after that 3 days we heard her cough at night and knew that it isn't a good sign. Meanwhile Ww's sick too, after being in a meeting with 2 colleagues who has flu and sneezing beside him.

This time round I thought I'll bring her to the doc earlier on Friday afternoon since it's so packed on Saturday and closed all weekend. $68 later she started to develop a fever that night that lasted till Monday morning. We brought her to the clinic near home and thank God it was open with our fav chatty doc. She was prescribed antibiotics (again!!) and given a tablet in her butt to bring her 39.5degree temp down.

She was so seh the whole day, took a 4 hour nap and watch a lot of hi-5. This time round she was REALLY sick. We haven't seen her so sick for a long while. She also haven't eaten much for 3 days and her extra 300g she gained recently was all lost. I also see signs of her usual irritability when she's sick but we try to give her lots of TLC and firmness.

Pray she gets well soon by Friday cos we've got lots of fun stuff to do in the coming weekend!!

Starting school and babies

Eliza starts school
Ww mentioned that Eliza's school uniform looked just like Elmo's...i just had to take a photo of her & Elmo. Got me laughing crazy when Ww pointed that out, days after we have gotten the uniform...and i didn't realize it at all.


Oh this was quite a while ago already...since the beginning of july. Except that she missed almost one entire week cos she was sick and we were worried that she will pass it on to other kids, since she herself got it from another kid.
So far the separation has been much better. During the first 2 days she was quite happy to go to school, after that it was downhill for a week. Everytime my mil brings out her uniform she'll run away...and she'll cry her way down. The good part is that she'll be sooo chirpy and happy when she's coming out, it's really quite fun to pick her up after school. The playschool is just 2 blocks away so it has the advantage of being so nearby.
We hadn't planned to put her in school so early, but seeing that my mil is so busy during the mornings, plus not always being able to guide her in her emotional & mental growth...hmm..in a way. We felt that getting Eliza to start some 2-hr playgroup would be a fun thing for Eliza (since she has been so 'on' about going to school). And at the same time it would be a good relief for my mil. Would have loved to put her in another school but it's so far away at Kembangan.

Every time we ask her what she learnt at school, she'll say some meow meow song (everytime!) so it's really hard to decipher what she did at school, other than the timetable we have from the school. This weekend, she told me of watching fireworks and i kinda caught her singing some song that sounded like the National Anthem..hahaa..this girl ah...always singing.

Eliza loves her older cousin but is apprehensive of her new baby girl cousin

I thought she did seem kinda disappointed that her cousins weren't here this weekend. My SIL needed to rest after her delivery so it's not a good time for them to come either.
Then we also realized that she is really not very warmed up to the baby either. She's really not a fan of babies and younger kids. She'll acknowledge the presence of the baby like "who cry?" but don't dare to get near the baby. Sometimes, i wonder if it's some bad experience with younger kids in the past or lack of exposure with younger kids and babies; or it's just her...that she's not a fan of babies at all.

The heart issue + dealing with a sick toddler

The heart issue...
Parenting is a heart issue. I love reading from this homeschooling mum, her insights on parenting, the stuffs she does with her kids. It's like learning from a mentor. I've learnt much from her and i love some of the things she writes in this entry.

"Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
This is the secret formula to the successful passing on of values: the parent must have his child's heart. By that, I believe the Bible would be alluding to the child's affection, adoration, deep respect, and importantly trust that you love him and always have his welfare at heart. It is only when we have the heart of the child that the child will happily obey and observe and follow our ways- even when their flesh and sinful desires tell them otherwise. And when a child will be wise to obey his loving parents, therein will he find safety and protection and blessing. It is no coincidence that God also wants His children's hearts. "

"Importantly, love each child as unique individuals who have different talents and abilities, different weaknesses. Do not fall into the trap of measuring everyone by the same yardstick because not everyone can measure up the same way."

She also writes about dealing with a child hitting when he's angry, and for me it's Eliza throwing things when she is upset she's not getting her way. (no wonder we say people are childish when the get angry and throw things...i see a child in action like that!)
I realized that i have been focusing on her throwing things and i neglected to address her anger at not getting her way. This has been such a timely reminder about addressing the heart of the issue and not the behavior.
It's like an eureka moment. Thank God for guiding me to her blog, to reading this and i learn from it. Really. God's amazing.

At the same time i was also reading the Pupose driven life devotional today and the verse was also on the same matter.

A man's heart reflects the man. Proverbs 27:19 (NIV)
"Where did those interests come from? They came from God!
God had a purpose in giving you these inborn interests. Your emotional heartbeat is a key to understanding your shape for service. Don't ignore your interests; consider how they might be used for God's glory. There is a reason that you love to do these things."

Dealing with a sick toddler...
I wonder if being sick makes Eliza more irritable, more impatient, more prone to tantrums, sudden impulses, waking up more times at night etc. I feel like i tread the delicate line of giving her more slack cos she's having a runny nose/blocked nose and to still not give in on some of the rules and basic manners that we expect of her.
ie. she refuses to let me make the bed cos she wants to do it on her own...i let her, though not without her almost breaking into a upset-almost-going-to-fly-into-tears-and-rage mess. That little time frame between me saying and backing away from the issue at hand is sometimes just not fast enough. and her displeasure is only accented by her not being able to get what she wanted to do in the first place.

This is what i meant her being so touchy and ready to explode anytime.

Nowadays with more demands from her to do this, eat that, watch this now, do this now etc. There's a lot of distraction to be done, a lot of "No. Now now"s. I find myself being the bad guy around (as compared to my in-laws who are a lil more likely to give in than me).

This week is slightly better. I'm just praying that this is only a phase of due to her sickness and not so much of her character. Still it's a learning point for all of us, for her as well.

I just pray she gets well soon...it has been slightly over a week since she got sick last tuesday, and despite her cough and phelgmy-ness cleared, she's still having a slight runny nose that's disturbing her sleep at night. (which means my sleep gets disturbed too cos she'll keep waking up even after she has gone down for bedtime.) tonight she has woken up at least 4 times since she fell asleep earlier.

Nonetheless, she's still the cutie pie and full of fun :)

Learning to play together

I guess it is a part of growing up. Learning to socialize, to share, to play together. Even as i see Eliza's 4 & 6yr old cousins play, they're still learning! A lot of times we have to mediate between them and guide them to play without ending up in a fight or a load of complains.

I wonder if it's some of Eliza's experience with other kids who are younger than her, that she was very protective over the things she plays, or it's a developmental phase. She doesn't like to hang around younger kids or sometimes kids her age, as if she's wary that they will take the toys she's playing. Then she'll get very upset about the whole situation.
Or she'll take what a younger kid is playing and a whole tense situation will ensue as we'll be disapproving of her actions and get her to return the toy which she'll throw it or hold on even tighter.

Most of the time it ends in tears.

Now, what helps is to prepare her for the possible situation when some sharing while playing together is required. We help her to understand that she can say no to another kid who wants to take her toy or she can give the toy. And when she wants another kid's toy, to wait for her turn, to ask or to find another better toy, or to play together (a concept which i think will take a while to master).

It's not that she doesn't play nice...she'll generously pass a toy to another kid when encouraged to and when the kid isn't being mean or threatening to her. I've seen her wait really patiently for a little boy to finish playing the train tracks. The boy was playing forever...and when his parents tried once to distract him away he almost broke down. But Eliza continued to wait...she told herself, "wait for train". I think the parents was paishe that she was waiting so long that they eventually carried their son away from the toy to something else, not without protests from the little boy.

With some practice, with some guidance, with some wisdom, may God grow her to be a good friend, a kind and loving one.

Updating

Zoo Trip
We made 2 zoo trips this june holidays. One with a group of cell bro&sis (not our cell though but we join them in their outings from time to time), and another with Ww's school teachers for their recce for a school programme.

It's always fun to visit the zoo and see all the animals...i taught Eliza the song "we're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo" and the next day she's pestering me to bring her there again and pestering me to sing it to her to sleep. If it wasn't so far and expensive, i would be one of our regular weekend outings. ha!

Marriott Hotel stay

We thought we'll try staying at Marriott Hotel instead of Ritz Carlton this time round (using the Marriot rewards points). And had fun time mostly at the pool. We figured since we're STILL in singapore, we might as well make full use of the facilities, in the room and at the pool side so it's pool play as much as we can.

The wonderful thing about the pool is that the shallow pool part is quite a large portion and Eliza had great fun exploring, playing, "swimming".

We had my in-laws pop by before going for dinner together. I guess kids bring out the fun in grandparents eh?


After dinner we found that the chambermaids have so thoughtfully put the Marriott tiger beside Elmo on the bed, with Elmo's arm around the tiger too!

Eliza declared that the tiger's Elmo's friend :)

Eliza & painting
Almost a weekly or fortnightly activity we do on my weekends. We have progressed from just hand painting (or you can call it hand smearing), to using the paint brush, to painting the paint palette (or plate), to sponging (i only used one sponge and have yet to find a cheap nice sponge to cut shapes), to using the cookie cutter that i got for playdough-play to do stamping. see even i evolve during painting class...

She has also started to draw 'smiley' mouths to paint out a happy face.
Painting is a way to learn how to use the tools more than drawing real stuffs. I have been trying to teach her to hold the paintbrush properly (same goes for all other crayons and pens). She's also getting better at the "hand-printing". Now i see the handprint!

Eliza & Drawing
Eliza will ask us to draw things or we'll just spin out whatever doodles.
Here is daddy's drawing of Eliza driving a car...and Eliza wanted him to draw mummy, daddy, ah-ma, ah-gong.

So now you know why the people behind are so small