Thursday, April 29, 2010

To the beach again !!

We really enjoyed the morning trips to the beach ! Whenever the weather is good and we have the time, we will make a trip down to the beach !



Xav's turning to be a beach boy soon !


He is pretty good with building his cuppies now !

and starts counting them one by one !

Well, getting more adventurous.. trying to build near the water line !




and he picks up seashells and kept repeating "seashells" whenever he picks up one ! Too bad, couldn't find really nice ones @ ECP. Probably they have more at Siloso beach !




This time round was bad, Xav got a big mozzie bite behind his left knee, which kept him irritated for days ! It got swollen and red and poor boy was interrupted in his sleep at night due to the itch. Thank goodness, I managed to reduce the itch using salt water to apply on the area. Get better soon, Xav.


More carpentry up !

The carpentry for the living room, kitchen and master bedroom are more or less done. Left with the shower screen for the bathroom, the vanity top for the master bedroom bathroom, some touch up for the lighting and another coat of paint.

More or less, I guess, all would be done by next week.

We opt for a refreshing yellow for the shoe cabinet



and a different tone of yellow for the tv console

to differentiate the area. At first sight, we did not really like the colour of the console but after looking for a while, we find it acceptable though. Hence, we decided not to change it.

The kitchen is up ! But due to the space constraint, the kitchen only has two small cabinet to hold whatever we need to hold. We need to brainstorm for another storage space !!


Two pull out mini rack for the cooking oil, salt, sauces etc ..

These are the only two usable storage spaces.


The common bathroom door is done. We opted for acrylic white bi-fold door.

The grills are up too. Infact, I hate to have grills around the house. Makes me feel "locked up" but for safety aspects as there is a child in tbe house, better playsafe than sorry.

This is the mater bedroom wardrobe.

Configuration is done by ourselves after going around for some ideas.

This shall be shared between dear dear and me to hang attire that needs to be hang up. Think most likely, I be settling for the lower portion cos, I'm not tall enough .. hahaha

The extreme left compartment is longer for dresses. And the middle pull out is for either our watches or smaller garments like under garment, ties etc ..

Vanity top for the master bedroom bathroom.

Dear dear got his favourite fountain tap to match with this basin.

A simple white light to go with.

Last but not least the sliding window for the service yard is done !!

Last shopping to be done are the the fixtures for the bathrooms and kitchen.

Air con units will be up by next week too ! Looking forward for the completion !

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Sunday lunch

Sunday was back at Bedok and here I am cooking some simple dishes for the afternoon.

Started off with Omelette with Ham for the morning as per hint I caught on sat evening .. =p


And here's Xav's share. He was sure delighted as he did not have any fruits for two months already !!

Scrambled eggs with steam apples and a packet milk !


I started to give him a little to start with. Happy !!!

Only recently, I started giving him prune juice to help him with the contispation as he could not take fruits until his phlegm is cleared.

Lunch was black pepper chix wings


And steam cod fish with lily bulbs.


Got the recipe from wokking mum but I modify the measurement as per my own serving.

Seasoning:
1 table spoon of sesame oil
1 table spoon of Chinese cooking oil
8-10 pieces of lily bulbs, shredded ginger
tomato slices to replace chilli as I could not find any in the fridge.

Steam until fish is cooked.

Heat up one table spoon of cooking oil and half a teaspoon of soy sauce. Drizzle over the fish and serve.

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Route to recovery from Bronchiolitis

After all these while, despite taking the neb for so long, Dr Koh suggested to send Xav for a chest x-ray, a full blood count and as well as a nasal swab test.

He stopped Xav from the neb as the phlegm still persists and gave him antibiotics "Distaclor" as the x-ray shows that the right lung has infection and it could be from the previous lung infection which had not been fully recovered.

Nasal test result showed that there is a heavy grow of Moraxella Catarrhalis (a type of bacterial)
Plus the white blood cells count in the full blood count rest is significantly higher than the normal range for children. Xav's findings was 15 whereby the normal range is from 5-10.

During these one week having been on antibiotics, suddenly Xav got thick yellowish mucous again. When we went back for review, Dr Koh was saying to extend the antibiotics for another week if need be give him zyrtec to help with the runny nose.

The runny nose went on for 3 days and I decided to bring him to Ever Spring Medical Group (tcm) for 陈美娥医师 to check.

Her diagnose was Xav's body is very weak yet there is heatiness in his body (虚火)if I did not write wrongly. All his cough and cold are the result of his sensitive airways and told me to make him bird nest as it would help him in his lungs. But no cordyceps as she is trying to retune is weak body after he finishes with the course of medication she gave. Best part was she was telling me, the powder she gave to Xav works well with Zyrtec.

He has been on the powder for three days and I started to see improvement !

His nose is slowly drying up ! Though his mucous now are those super sticky type. At least I finally see him recovering after the long battle with the bugs !! And also no more cough except for a few cough in the morning when he wakes !

I wouldn't dare to say this tcm is good. Probably her medication works well with certain western medication. But one thing that kills is the waiting time !


We waited for 2 hours even with appointment ! Anyway, what matters most now is Xav is recovering !!!

The clinic is located at Blk 42 Cambridge road, if I did not remember wrongly ( opposite Pek Kio CC) Tel: 62568774.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Beetroot & Spinach Porridge

Finally, went to buy beetroot for Xavier to try as I heard that it's pretty nutritious.

It is also called beet, the beetroot is a firm, clean globe shaped vegetable with no soft wet areas.


If still attached, it should have fresh, clean young leaves. The beetroot is characterised by dark purple skin and a distinctive purple flesh.


Containing the powerful antioxidant betacyanin, which gives beetroot its deep red hue, this vegetable purifies the blood and has anti-carcinogenic properties.

It boosts the body’s natural defenses in the liver, regenerating immune cells. Also contains silica, vital for healthy skin, fingernails, ligaments, tendons and bones.

Beetroot contains sodium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iodine, iron, copper, Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6 and C. Each capsule provides approximately 1-2mg of elemental

More benefits of Beetroot can be found HERE .

I added in some spinach & minced pork into the porridge as well.


And Xav loves it to see and taste something new !

Friday, April 23, 2010

Lightings & carpentry

The lightings for the whole house were all fitted up ! But the cove lightings are so unevenly distributed !!! Think they got to re-fit the whole thing.

and I found cracks and small little holes on the false ceiling with plc units.



Most comes from the Master Bedroom and the cove lightings are not evenly distributed as well.

We chose a refreshing green to go with white for the kitchen and a rectangular lighting for the cooking area.

For sure this is bright enough for the light to penetrate through the clear openings by the length.

This will be the dry table top with the built-in-oven below.

The walkway with warm plc lightings. But the last unit nearest to the Master bedroom seems to be out of alignment.

The is the lighting we got for both common rooms. Except that the one installed in Xavier's room have both white and night light.

Sink for the Master Bedroom to go with the fountain flow tap.

Think by next week, the grills and the common bathroom doors as well as the rooms carpentry should be done by then.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Xav @ 24 months

Yes it's the terrible two stage !! In a wink, Xav turns 2 !


Getting more fun from him but on the other hand it's his tantrums ! He wants it his way, can't do it or can't get it, he will whine and cry his way through to get it. But Xav, you're wrong, wrong, wrong, doesn't mean to say you cry and you'll get it ! We only give in on certain issues.


Sometimes the boy can be in his worst behaviour but luckily he is still not the kind who will roll himself all over the floor and wail !

Xav is still considered not that bad. On good days when he saw a kiddy ride and wanted to ride on it.


Normally, we will allow him and probably after satisfying his desire to ride on it, he obediently allow us to carry him and said "bye bye train" or "bye bye car" (for instance) and left without any fuss.


No matter how much he loves Thomas the train, I'm proud that he really behaved himself when I told him to say bye and it's time to leave when I met up with the gals @ Paragon that morning.





This poor boy here has been down with bad cough since cny and has never recovered from it before getting a new bug again. Seriously, I felt so exhausted...

This is the longest period of time he is on the neubaliser.


Lending me a helping hand at times and monkey around at the same time.


Sometimes he is just too tired that I will neub him when he fell asleep, using the bolster to cover out the sound so as not to disturb him.


His most recent session was extended for another 3 days ( total of 10 days of pulmicort with berodual solution) and afterwich for 2 weeks, once a day using only pulmicort.

Anyway, we have bought a neubaliser to cut cost since it's gonna be a long term usage as it's not a short term issue for asthmatic problems. The previous amount we spent on the rental of the neub is already sufficient to get a brand new set.

This is the amount of medication he is on daily.

1. Singulair (For protection of the lungs for a month)
2. Ketotifen (To strengthen his lungs for 3 months, 2.5 ml twice a day)
3. Xepagan (3.5 ml, thrice a day for flu)
4. Mucosolvan (2.5 ml, twice a day for phlegm)
5. Prednisolone syrup (Anti inflammation for lungs for 3 days, 5 ml twice a day)
6. Pulmicort and 7. berodual for the inhalation. I wonder how the body is gonna be weaken by all this medication after a long period !

Hope the boy gets well soon to go back to his Zoophonics classes !


His vocabulary is slowly increasing ! How exciting and fun when I can once a while engaged in short conversations with him !

He is able to identify umbrella (171) and often will fight with us to take the umbrella ! More often than not, I'll be most happy to have him help me with it as I seriously hate to lug one around!

He also learns what's seashells (172) when he took some from my collection !


Ladybug (173) was next !! He was so in love with ladybug such that I brought back a ladybug for him from Dana's party as Xav could not go.


I downloaded a ladybug song from the Appstore. He kept listening to it ! And learnt three new body parts from there as the song is the animated type ! Now he knows where is his elbow, (174),wrist (175) and ankle (176) !

These are some short conversations I had with him as his level of comprehension is also slowly increasing. Sometimes, I get really funny answers from him.


Recently, he constipated as he has no fruit intake in his diet. Poor boy woke up one morning at 6 am, starring out of the window and did his business. The next day, I observed him starring out of the window again.

Mummy: Xav, did you poo ?
Xav: nothing ... ( he did not poo, so nothing in his diaper! Lol)

Xav: itchy
Mummy: where
Xav: teeth (prob he meant the gums)... Teething gel and he ran off to take the tube of teething gel and asked me to apply for him.

Mummy: ok Xav, time to sleep. What song would you like to sing? (no reply from Xav, so I started singing "Sing your way home")
Xav: Ng wan (don't want) ... Softly he whispered "you are sunshine" ( you are my sunshine)
and he sure knows how to be choosy on the song he wants to listen to !

His favourite hit recently was "Miss polly" because I added some actions in it. And here he learns hat (177) and like to wear this kfc mini bucket on his head and dance around.





and he can constructs short sentences.


I get to hear short sentences or short phrases from him asking me to:

1. On the light pease (please)

2. Open the door pease...

Two/ three words sentences

3. Drink water (when he is thirsty)

4. Hung yee (hungry, 178) and starts rubbing his tummy

5. Sorry sorry (when he is trying to make his way through the crowd)

6. read , read (179) (will come to me with the book he wanted me to read)

7. Able to name me the second half of the food which the hungry caterpillar ate (salami (180), lollipop (181), sausage (182), cupcake (183), watermelon (184).

And he got a "moustache" created by himself using a tape !


8. Goodnight Moon is also another of his favourite !

He will named me ribiit (rabbit, 185), socks (186), mouse (187), curtains (188), bears (189) and mittens (190), kittens (191).

I followed up by asking him to spot other and point to me the objects that can be seen from the picture.


For instance, fire place, window, cutains (192), rocking chair, clocks, bed and pillow, he managed to point them all out correctly.

9. His recent liking in singing the birthday song and blowing of candles (192) made me downloaded a rather silly application from AppStore. You can choose from 1-3 candles to sing from and thereafter you can blow off the flame on the candle.

Sounds a bit silly but Xav is loving bits of it ! And he will tell me "2 candles" when he selected 2.

10. Counting starts !!! He apprehends what I am trying to tell him. When I asked him "Xav can you count how many bottles are there ?" he will start pointing and count one by one ! And same goes for other objects !

There was once when we carried his pram up a flight of stairs, guess what.. Xav started to count how long we took to carry it up !!

11. His most recent favourite is naming me shapes on the floor he sees. From circles, rectangles (193), ovals, squares and diamond.

12. Xav also started to describe things which he saw, for instance, yellow taxi, red shoes, purple shorts, black car, white shirt, brown cupcake !

He can play alongside with his friends but can't share though. As his "share" meant to be 'give it to him" !

But in good times, surprisingly, he is willing to share with Edna his toys ! I will ask him, "Xav, you have 2 giraffes or cars, can you give mei-mei 1?" and he gladly gives it to her and sometimes, a kiss and a hug too !

13. Xav can recognized more fruits and veg now ! We by pass a provision stall and a fruit stall when I brought him out for lunch. He happily pointed to the various items and name me one by one ! Apples, oranges, bananas, mango (194), durian (195), grapes (196), corn (197), tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, broccoli (198) etc !



14. And he was so in love with the book which Jo got for his birthday


that I have to read to him several times a day. There was this word 'trophy' in it and I decided to show him a real one.


Ended up, he played around with my trophies


and pretended to to raise it up high when I read ' I can do it !"



15. 'Change diaper' is another short sentence he could tell me when he poos.. but I feel that he doesn't like to be potty train as yet despite he started to show signs of being uncomfortable sitting on his own poo ! He raised his butt as high as he could so avoid contact on the floor !



The last achievement of Xav before I sign off ! He can sleep on his own without having me to pat him or be around in the room for his noon nap !

He has done this for 5 days already ! Keep it up ! But he still requests me to "pat" him at night though. Nevertheless, well done boy !


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