Hayley's 1st Report Card Day

We've had our first official meet the teachers day to discuss about Hayley's progress in school on 19th June at 9.30am. I have to say that papa and mummy were by far more anxious and excited than the 'star' of the day. We've preparing ourselves for words such as 'she's so active', 'she cannot sit still', 'she gets distracted easily' or worst 'can you please not send her to school anymore' hahahaha from the teachers.

Waiting for her turn to meet the teacher

This is her passport photo.. Look at how much she has grown!

Overall her results were pretty good. Lots of As with a few Bs on areas that I am sure we can work on. The meeting was short and the teacher didn't have much to say about her, no news is always good news :-). The principal even told us that she has 'settled down' a lot compared to when she first started. She can now sit in a group and learn in a group environment, something she cannot do when she first joined as she gets distracted very easily. The teacher and principal also adds that she's a very affectionate child, likes to hug the teachers and carer and is very bonded with them.

I also took the opportunity to provide my 2 cents to the teachers:

1. I reminded the teachers that they should be careful with the words they used around the kids. My girl came back from school one day saying 'busy body' and when I asked her who used the word she told me teacher said she was busy body. Well this is not a bad word but I think the teachers sometimes will also need to be reminded to be more careful with their selection of words.


2. I always wonder how the kids can/will line up and use the toilet before their snack time. My girl was in the bathroom one day and told me she wanted to pee standing (demonstrating to me like how a boy would pee). I ask her why she wants to pee like that. She told me teacher said she can pee like that. I know the teachers won't say she can pee like that but I am just wondering how she knows that boys will pee like that if she's not exposed to it in school????

Recently I've also been making her practise her writing as and when I can. I have to say that it is not easy to make her sit down and write as she does get distracted very easily. Here's her first attempt at writing her own name without me holding her hand or showing her the alphabets. She wrote this on her own with no help from me. This was her best attempt so far and deserved a star :-)Unfortunately, a few days later, she could still write her name but the alphabets were in different sizes, the spaces between the alphabets were different, the alphabets written in the wrong way ie from the right to the left etc... it was really messy! :-(

I really need to make her practise everyday to keep the momentum going. I wish I have more time especially on weekdays. If I could just dedicate 30 mins with her each day to practise writing, colouring or even some arts and crafts with her, I am sure she it will help her focus and concentrate better in school.

Zac's Update: 7+ months

At 7+ months, I:

• am not very adventurous with food, I still prefer milk


• can sit unassisted for a short time and will often topple sideways when I lose my balance


• still can't crawl but can roll from one end of the bed to the other easily


• am getting better at my motor skills, can hold a toy, change hands and turn it to whichever way I want it to be


• like jumping up and down and I like knocking on things to make music


• still get 1 feed in the middle of the night (between my last feed at 9pm and 7am) but for almost the whole of last week and this week, I slept through with no feed!


• love playing with my ceh ceh, I would laugh like crazy just looking at her running around. I also love to chase ceh cech on my walker


• will show my temper when someone snatch away my toy or when I am not getting what I want


• had flu and it lasted quite a while (on and off for about 3 weeks) and visited the paed for some medicine, the flu went away but I ended up with swollen tonsils, a very nasty cough and lots of phlegm in my lungs (you can even hear it when I breathe). One side of my cheek got swollen too. The paed said it was because of the infection which causes the swelling of some lymph nodes on my cheeks. As long as it is not red and I have no fever, mummy will only need to monitor for enlargement. I had to be on antibiotics for the first time :-(. Hopefully I will get well soon.


• think I am teething. My gums are swollen.


• am still as happy as I always will be even when I am sick :-)

While at the doctor we took the opportunity to check my growth. I now weight 8.55kg and am 67cm tall. Mummy and papa said I'm a shorty, like them :-)

My favourite pastime apart from watching 'Your Baby Can Read' CD is scratching my head.

A child's character

I always wonder, is a child born with a certain character or is it the parent's fault for not educating and guiding the child causing such a character?

My 3 year old is very different from most kids her age from what I can observe. She is very friendly, caring, inquisitive, curious, mature and has a mind of her own.

Although she is very friendly and caring, most kids at the playground dislike to play with her. You may wonder why????

Well, I would like to think that her friendliness and caring nature kind of scare people away and some even find her annoying. For eg. if she see a little kid (one that is younger than her) at the playground, her sisterly instinct would kick in and she would want to protect the kid. She would want to hold his hand, make sure he won't fall and if he failed to rock on the horsey, she would push him, the same for the slide! Now some of you may think, hey there is nothing wrong with that! Well... she is clumsy and rough, she would sometimes unintentionally cause the kid to fall and when she pushes him on the horsey, she would sometimes push too hard and scare the kid. There is no need to mention how she would scare the parents if she try to help to push a kid down the slide! Some parents will find her annoying too cause she just won't stop following their kid!

When she see older kids at the playground, she would want to play with them. She would play whatever they are playing and try to be involved. She just wants to be apart of them and have some friends. Some of these older kids will find her disturbing. Once, one of the older kids even commented 'wo tau yen tar' (mandarin for 'I hate her'). Sigh.. my poor girl.

If she's at the swing and they are all occupied, she would not hesitate to speak her mind and say 'you have to share, its my turn' to any of the kids on the swing. Although I encourage her to speak her mind and although she is not wrong, some parents and kids will find her to be impolite. Most kids her age would just stand at the corner displaying a sad face waiting for their turn but mine as you can see, will not!

Like most kids her age, she also likes to play with what others are playing. If no one is playing with the blocks, she won't touch the blocks. If a kid plays with the blocks, she too wants to play with the blocks. Same will happen to the brother. Whatever the brother is playing, she wants to play. Is that her being possessive or she's just having trouble sharing??

I always encourage her to be loving, not afraid to kiss and hug and express her love. I always remind her to share which is the hardest lesson to teach as she was quite selfish, I would like to blame this as a result of her being the only child for almost 3 years. We don't pamper and spoil her if that's what you're thinking :-). She does get punished and caned whenever necessary.

So how did she end up with this character? Papa always say she is behaving just like me. Is she mirroring what I am doing or did she get my genes and born with it?

And my next question is, is this character good or bad for her?

Now that she's still young she doesn't know and probably not bruised by being brushed aside by other kids. When she is older, how will she react? Will she grow to be someone with a strong character as a result of this or will she get bruised and eventually hide in a corner?

Only time will tell. I will not stop encouraging her to continue to be caring, friendly and inquisitive but I will certainly keep a close eye to make sure it won't end up in a negative way.

Now now, I also want to give credit when credit is due. Her character sometimes do result in many positive remarks from other parents. Sometimes some will say 'she's very sweet and loving' when she 'took care' of their little ones and some even say 'she's so nice' when she hugged the other kids goodbye :-)

Hayley's chatter

At McDonalds,

Me: How many fries do you want to eat?
Hayley: 5 (showing 5 fingers)
Me: ok I will give you 5

When the fries arrived she immediately took 1. While she was still munching, I gave her 4 more. She started counting..1,2,3,4 then she stared at me

Hayley: how come 4 only?
Me: you said you wanted 5, I gave you 5 (counting the 4 fries plus the one she was holding).
Hayley: not enough, I need more!

Proceeded to snatch the fries from my table.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was reading a home design magazine before bed one night,

Me: see this house is so nice (making a sad face), I don't have enough money to buy this house.
Hayley: don't be sad, I will buy for you. How many do you want?
Me: I want 2, I want big house
Hayley: (pointing to the houses on the magazine) OK I buy this one and this one for you ok? (then she patted my shoulder and giving me a reassuring look)
Me: you don't have money. The house is very expensive, need a lot of money
Hayley: I got, I got a lot downstairs (referring to her coin box). I give you a lot ok. I take some more (referring to getting more coins from the father) and give you everything...then you can buy this one and this one ok?
Me: OK
Hayley: see this one got swimming pool, you can go swimming also....
Me: (big smile)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One night during bedtime, while she was lying in bed

Hayley: (out of a sudden) I am so happy. I am a happy girl.
Me: why are you so happy?
Hayley: because i have mummy, daddy, Jun Jun (referring to Zac), yi yi (referrring to my sis), gor gor (referring to my sis's boy friend) and por por.

She made me happy too!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She wanted her papa to bath her and the papa was in his study,

Hayley: papa, let's go
Papa: give me 5 mins
Hayley: no, 4 mins! then started counting, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... ok 4 mins already, let's go..
Papa: *speechless*

These moments made all the tiring days of looking after them worth every sweat!

Mild HFMD?

As most of you would know that my girl contracted HFMD and we found out on Saturday 28th May when she complained of mouth pain and refused dinner. There were no early warning as she didn't get any sort of blisters/rash on the hands or feet or buttock or even fever. It started with only ulcers in the mouth.

We took her to the doctor on Sunday morning and the doctor said HFMD usually will have blisters/rashes and told us that although there were none, she very likely contracted HFMD as there were quite a number of ulcers in the mouth (tongue, sides of the cheek and even the top). She sent us home with some painkiller and oral gel.

I've heard a lot of scary stories about how kids will refuse food, milk or even water because of the pain. My sister's 3 year old had it few months back and it was terrible. My sister had to force the 'watermelon frost' into her mouth to numb the pain so she could eat/drink something. I panicked. My girl is known to be very picky with food (very 'siu ceh' and 'yim chim') and I was worried on how to get food into her mouth if she's going to be in such pain.

Thankfully it was pretty smooth for us. On Sunday itself I got her to gargle with salt water a few times a day and the ulcers were bearable as she could still eat and drink and even brushes her teeth. She complained of pain from time to time but she still managed to eat (mainly porridge) and finished up her milk. She continued the salt water routine for the following few days.

Apart from the pain caused by the ulcers she was fine. She was quite her normal self. However, we still tried to keep her away from her brother as much as we can. We sent the boy to the babysitter after confirming that he was fine during daytime. I also did a lot of cleaning, disinfecting and wiping at home. The home smelt like Dettol all the time :-)

After being confined at home for 4 days, we sent her back to the babysitter on Wed so I could go back to work. On Thurs I found out that the other baby (Jovin who is 10 months old) at the babysitter contracted the same thing. She didn't have blisters/rashes as well but only ulcers in the mouth. Could she have contracted it from Hayley? If she did then I would feel really bad. But then why didn't my boy get it? He spent more time with Hayley than Jovin did. Anyway, Jovin also got better after a few days. I am starting to feel that this isn't really HFMD, it may be a new type of disease or a mutated one that is going around town. Apparently the doctor Jovin visited told her mom that he has seen 3 kids with the same symptoms just on that morning itself. So parents out there beware!

The next thing which I will need to do would be to change her toothbrush, cups, teats, drinking bottle etc to get rid of the germs once and for all...