Started the day off with a small halloween / fall party at the apartment block.
Didn't do quite much this year... no trick or treating (just cause it coincided with his nap time and his bed time). Nevertheless, we still managed to head out to the parade in our town.
While searching out for amusement parks (aside from those Disney ones) during summer, I stumbled upon Edaville. It's a train themed amusement park. The best part was... Thomas land was coming (at that time) to Edaville in August 2015. I immediately knew that we had to take Shane there for his birthday. I guess I was more excited than he was. At that time, I had just gotten him a Thomas the Train set, and he had been pretty excited.
However we decided to do this trip over the Columbus day weekend instead of Thanksgiving for a few reasons - More daylight, Grandma popo was still in America, Longer opening hours and not so cold!!
Edaville!!
What I really like about this place was that Shane could go almost on all the rides. Previously at other parks, all he could do was watch the rides go by. Also, even though it was a long weekend, the queues to the rides were not terribly long. Maximum wait I would say was less than 5 minutes.
And so he went on his first flying elephant ride
Thomas land within Edaville
It was after our visit to Thomasland that Shane started recognising the other engines like Toby, Percy, James, Henry, and also the other characters in the story like Bertie & Harold.
Thomas land rides
Trip to Thomas land isn't complete without a photo with Thomas
The biggest enjoyment we had was the 20 mins ride on Thomas. It was a ride around the perimeters (i think) of Edaville park. We hopped on it twice and the little one loved it so much!!
Overall, a very very nice day at Edaville. I would definitely return more often (if not for the 6 hour drive!!!).
Shane's hair got long on the side and I just had to snip it off.... Never really cut anyone's hair in my life... but I wasn't really going to pay $20 and have a screaming toddler.... So, i did it myself...
After I did it, he now looks like a big boy now. So different!!
I think Shane just strung his first sentence at 20.5months!
For a really long time (about 3-4 weeks), he's been saying… Papa, Train, Choo Choo. Then it progressed to Papa, Train, Choo Choo, Go. Then it progressed to Papa, Train, Choo Choo, Go Work.
Finally, today, it became… Papa took choo choo train to go work. Well, not the best English sentence around, but it's his first sentence strung together after several attempts.
I have been driving to and fro from New Jersey and Philly and i find the morning 2 hour drive during peak hours very tiring and stressful. Having Shane sitting in the car for 4 hours or more and driving from place to place doesn't seem like a very productive time for him (and for me). So I guess it's time to call it quits, and find stuff to do here in NJ.
So today, we had our last hall mercer playgroup in Philly. Mixed feelings for me (I don't think Shane realizes what's going on yet)… because I know most of the little ones (and their moms) in the group since they were really tiny! It's been a long 1.5 years journey watching them all grow up, playing with each other and enjoying the hang out sessions outside class.
Shane & Morielle when they were just 6 weeks old!!
Shane & Morielle @ 20 months old
So here are just some shots from today's last class. Hall mercer, we will miss you…. You have taught me so much on parenting and how to keep calm in the midst of baby chaos. You have instilled in Shane routine and discipline through songs and kind words. We (I) will always remember the last 1.5 years!
His newly discovered toy
His all time favorite Hungry Caterpillar slide. It was this slide that got him hooked to the book.
Shake Shake Shake… Oh what fun
Shane's favorite garden
Painting session since it was raining and we couldn't go to the roof to play
After months of stretching and reaching, he finally got tall enough to reach to the end of the sink to turn the tap on! Well done tall boy!
Milk and Muffins (one in each hand)… what else could be better
Hoarding the puppets...
And while I'm at this… I might as well add a few more photos of his wonderful time at the roof garden play area!
There are days that we don't do very much. Today is the day. I've been feeling so exhausted trying to keep up with the active toddler, so it's my Friday day off from activities. We hung out in the room while I attempted to take a nap. At least I squeezed in 30 mins without any dramas. He was kept entertained by his toys!! Woohoo! And these days, it's gotten so much better that I can leave him to his dinner while I prepare mine.
This time round, we have been really chilled out about number 2. It's week 12 already and we are still stuck in Singapore. It will probably be another few weeks before we get to see a obgyn in NJ. Time to hunt for a new doctor!
Shane came up to me this morning today and said "pee pee" and then paused a short while and said "poo poo". He ran to the toilet and stood outside the closed toilet door and kept going pee pee and poo poo. But!!! Papa was in the toilet. He started holding his diapers and tugging at it and I banged the door to get papa out ASAP! Brought him into the toilet, took off his diapers and then he did a pee and poo! My boy can officially start his potty training now.
We have been so careful with his diet since starting solids. So far, all his food has been either steamed or cooked using the AMC pot. So after a long 14.5 months, thought I would introduce him to his first oily food.
Fried nuggets! I mashed up some sweet potato, stirred in some ground pork and broccoli, coated it with some bread crumbs ... and wah la!!.
The verdict...
I think he didn't quite like them. He ate all three nuggets up but was done soon after (I made 8!). He started signing that he didn't want anymore and even threw one nugget at the TV. I'm pretty sure he was still hungry because he kept going for his snacks after lunch (and Shane doesn't really snack when he's full).
Shane celebrates his second Chinese New Year. It hasn't been very festive just because we don't have any family here nor do we have many friends. It's kinda tough being in such a transient community. Anyhow, hopefully next year we settle in a new permanent place and start making friends we know we won't lose in a year.
For now, Chinese New Year this year was spent with Leanne and her friends who brought Yu sheng all the way from Singapore. We actually went trekking out to H-Mart to get the sashimi.
And yes we didn't have a big round dish, so we made do with a baking tray. Also, we forgot to get carrots and radish. So we made do with yellow noodles. I must say the noodle version was way better than the vegetables version.
So… Shane fell sick sometime in mid January. He had conjunctivitis (i think they call it the Pink Eye here) and a mild fever of about 100.5 degF. He was still his usual self… ya da ya da. Phoned the doctor's office and the nurse asked me to take him in. And so we did.
We didn't get to see our usual pediatrician but saw some other guy instead (which was totally fine with us). So it turns out, Shane had an infection in his left ear. No biggie. But it was his first infection in his life. So yea, I guess I would call it a "first 'mile'-stone" (if you got my point). Within the same day, the virus spread, and he caught a cold. Stuffy nose and a phlegmy throat. We were prescribed with the antibiotics amoxicillin clavulanate and was on it for 10 days. The 10 days ended on 30 Jan (Friday).
AND I thought that was it! Woo hoo, baby should be fine. But his vomiting episodes did not stop and his poop was still no where close to normal. After the course of antibiotics ended, his fever came back. He stopped eating his meals. All his favorite foods were thrown onto the floor, stomped on. Wet diapers were few and far between. Something was definitely up. We called the doctor, and the nurse asked us to feed him with pedialyte. Within 5 mins, I was back on the phone with the nurse because he just would NOT take pedialyte. SO she referred us to the ER saying the ER could do something about it and they couldn't do much.
I packed Shane into the stroller and off we went to the ER at the Children's Hospital of Penn. Surprisingly, we saw a doctor within 2 mins (there was just no one at the ER, and NOT because his case was urgent). They asked about all his symptoms, took his temperature (rectal temperature of 102.7 deg F… so yes that's a fever). After asking a series of questions, they decided he had the virus and just asked us to give him pedialyte. Are you serious? No other checks. They didn't do anything with him. The only time they (a nurse) tried to listen to his chest was at the front counter, before we went into the room.
We were brought some anti vomit medicine and a cup of pedialyte for Shane to rehydrate himself on. Haha. if only the boy didn't learn to spit. Clearly spat everything out. Even the coloring laced strawberry flavored pedialyte. (Do you know all flavored pedialyte has food coloring? Why in the world would you put food coloring in a kids 'medicine'?!). I tried injecting 5ml of pedialyte every 5 minutes for an hour as the nurse said we couldn't go until he finished it. (that's a painfully long time). He fought so hard every 5 minutes that he just fell asleep after that. Looking at the half filled cup of pedialyte, I was wondering what time I would actually go home. The nurse came in and asked if he took it (or not), I said "no, but the floor enjoyed some though" and pointed to the wet floor.
Passed out from all the crying
THEN… the revelation came!
The nurse saw him passed out, and I said he slept while breastfeeding. And she simply said "oh, then he doesn't need Pedialyte". Seriously, did I hear something wrong, or was all the doctors and nurses not doing their job. That's the least they could do - to check if the baby was breast feeding ok or not! Within the next 30 mins, we saw the doctor, and we were told to go home then follow up with our regular pediatrician in about 3-5 days.
The next 2 days after ER were still terrible. Shane was still extremely lethargic and edgy, vomitted his food out, lingering fever, bad cold, etc. We couldn't wait 3-5 days, and went to the pediatrician for a walk in visit. So apparently this case would take longer, and they then refused his walk in visit, and we had to make an appointment and return 2 hours later.
This time, the doctor we saw (who was still not really our regular pediatrician, but I like her) did quite a bit of checks. She listened to his lungs, pressed a few areas, and then concluded he had bronchiolitis. Apparently you just have to ride it out on your own. And, she also discovered that Shane's ear infection did not go away (or maybe it did, and came back), and it was spread to the right ear too. She mentioned that since amoxicillin did not work on us, so she prescribed a stronger one. She called it Augmentin. Unlike in Singapore where medicine is dispensed at the doc's office, they sent the prescription to the pharmacy and it had to be picked up. Z picked up the antibiotics on the way home… but one look at the bottle, I knew deep down it was not the right one, because it read amoxicillin clavulanate.
Next, got onto the phone with the owner of practice (who happened to be the doctor on call). I said I think I got the wrong medicine, and he insisted it should have been amoxicillin clavulanate and when i explained to him why i thought it was wrong (because Shane just finished amoxicillin clavulanate like a few days back), he said to just feed Shane the amoxicillin clavulanate (aka wrong medicine), and he will phone me back when he got into the clinic at 9am the next morning) because they were closed.
Clearly 9am came and went. The clinic was closed on saturdays. So I only got my phone call in the afternoon. He clarified that I indeed had the wrong one and sent another script to the pharmacy for me to pick up.
OK, I don't know if you (reading this) would be mad, but I was hopping. This is so not cool. It's not just the co-pays for the medicine, but it was the fact that I fed my kid the wrong stuff. Maybe if you're a doctor and reading this, you think "oh, it happens all the time". But sorry, I'm no doctor. I'm a parent. You don't just go "oops" at someone's life.
Fast forward… The little boy is now a lot more cheerful and bright over the last few days after we started the other antibiotics. He's back to his usual cheeky self, and running around the house like a little monkey. I cannot decide if I like or dislike the healthcare system here in the USA. I think it sucks big time (like the quality you get for all the money you're paying for insurance). But we chose to be in this country, so just gotta suck it up and hope shit doesn't happen to us.
It's been a while since I had my last post. The last I checked… was 20 November! Wow. That's a good 2.5 months. We have been running around lots during the holidays, and I just did not have time to sit down and type. So much has happened since. Well, I even missed posting stuff about Shane's first birthday. So here's some dates since 20 Novemeber where I said his 9th tooth is out!
Shortly after his 9th tooth came out, his 10th tooth came out about 1-2 days later. These were the two molars at the bottom. He broke a slight fever of about 101.8 degF when that happened. Other than whine a little during the night (in his sleep), everything was pretty smooth sailing. So Shane turned ONE with TEN teeth!
I saw birthday chalkboards on Etsy, and thus decided to put my little photoshop skills to some good use, and made one for Shane. It's now printed and stuck on the wall.
We waited an extra week before celebrating his first birthday as grandpa was only going to arrive in Philadelphia on the 5th of December. On the actual day itself, being a Monday, papa was at school, so popo and I took baby Shane out for some lunch, then a play session at the Nest.
Lunch with Popo & Mummy
Play session @ the Nest - Always a Cheeky Grin
The day ended with a little dinner celebration at home after papa got home from school. I made a japanese cotton cheesecake with chocolate cheese icing. Definitely not professional looking, but it sure was a hit with the little boy. Decided on this because I could pretty much cut the sugar to a bare minimum and the cake would still turn out awesome.
Happily ate his dinner with all the attention he got for his big ONE
Happy 1st Birthday little boy!
We also found out along the way that he was terrified of candle flames. When we lit the candles, he just went bawling all the way. Thankfully we manage to do a quick photo snap in between one of his crying episodes (That explains the clapper in my hands).
Throughout the week, I kept checking the weather forecast for the big day 6th December. Well, the forecast was some heavy rain storm. I prayed it would just wait till the party was over. But well, for some reason, God did not answer those prayers. I'm sure He had his reasons. Anyhow the party still did go on. We had a small party as I didn't invite that many people in the first place. But about 1/3 of our guests didn't show up due to the rain (yes even though the venue was indoors), and some due to other reasons. It's ok - for those who braved the rain… THANK YOU.
Shane's First Birthday Cake
We had an extremely large cake for Shane. No, I didn't ask for such a large one. Our friend, Sophie, made it for Shane. I wanted a 9" round cake, and that was it… But she blessed us with a really large cake with very very cute figurine. For a new baker who started baking only a couple of months back and learning from youtube, I must say I was super impressed.
For those who came to his party, I hope you all enjoyed the carousel rides, and hope you all did come back again during a drier day for the mini golf.
Family Photo with the grandparents!
Again, the little boy was scared of the horses on the carousel! Why? I don't know!!
Oh Oh, and Shane has hit another milestone!! He started walking when he was exactly 1. I know he took a few steps when he was 11m old at Grow Thru Play, but this time, he really walked A LOT. On the 1st of December, after dinner, we were having some fruits, and he decided to try walking. Walking like a little drunkard.
He was not too steady on that day, but he walked quite a bit. The next day was a lot better and he could walk to and from the kitchen.
We spent a day on a road trip to Hersheys & Lancaster while the grandpa was still here. Gong Gong definitely had a lot of fun taking baby Shane on his walk. Since he just started walking, Shane has been wanting to go anywhere and everywhere on his two little feet.
We took the Hersheys Chocolate Tour with Shane (which he surprisingly did not fuss during the whole time)
Finishing off with a Hersheys Milkshake
Then it was Z's birthday that came next. No wait, we celebrated Shane's Lunar Birthday on the 20th December first by a treat to Sesame Place. Well, father and son (together with grandma popo) had a combine birthday treat. The weather was super cold for a day out at Sesame Place, but we still decided to go ahead with our plans. Glad we did!
Papa had his birthday dinner treat at the Mirin Japanese & Korean restaurant. We mostly had Korean food, and it was pretty good Korean food.
Z had a round 2 celebration (just the two of us… thanks to the baby sitter- grandma popo) at Stateside at Passayunk.
Then came Christmas! A couple of my friends from Hall Mercer organized a cookie exchange. It was my first cookie exchange that I attended. I sure did enjoy eating the cookie, but baking like 5-6 dozens of cookies was definitely too time consuming, and not fun at all. I don't mind baking a dozen or two. After that, it just gets a little annoying. Nevertheless, we all had a great time at Haley's and I have to report that Shane drank a whole glass of cows milk for the first time (yes he usually hates cows milk). Must be peer pressure.
It was a little small affair for us because most of our friends were either not around, or we didn't have other family to celebrate Christmas with us. Just us and popo. We made a small roast Chicken and some vegetables, did our usual bed time routine with Shane, and poof, Xmas eve was just over… just like that. Anyhow, Z had to also start packing his bags as he was leaving for his GCP (Wharton stuff) on Christmas Day.
Being blessed with so many presents!!
Since he was only going to be back in early January, we decided to hop on a plane to Houston to visit my dear cousin Rachel, and Jonathan.
HOUSTON
The Houston in my mind was so different. I imagined it to be a city, maybe just a little larger than most US cities. BUT I didn't expect it to be THAT huge. First, it was pretty much impossible to walk anywhere. It's pretty much a copy of Dubai. Large malls, huge cars… just minus the fancy bits. I thought I could stay around city center and walk. Wait… where's city center. Even being in the middle of it doesn't feel like it. We were blessed with nice cousins who lent us their car to go everywhere, including heading out to Bryan, Texas, where we visited Paster Dan at his church.
Dinner with the extended Family
Catching up with Pastor Dan
The month of January was fairly quiet for us. Just a couple of weeks after we got back from Houston, Shane was down with Conjunctivitis and then also had a ear infection & a cold. Till today (Yes, it's been about 3 weeks already), he's still down with the cold, and constant vomiting. So Z&I have been having interrupted sleep… Well, my rant with the USA medical system… shall be on my next blog post.
For now, it's been a long post, and it's late. Let's hope Shane doesn't puke out his dinner in his sleep.
