Suzette's Parenting and Breastfeeding Blog

Last Friday, we had dinner at in law’s house. As usual, after dinner, Ian searched around for snacks, and found this baby biscuit of SIL’s son (1+ yo). He took one and snacked on that (well, I allowed him to snack as long as he finishes his dinner).

The next moment, he came to me, with both hands holding something gluey, disgusting! It was that baby biscuit, wet and mushy!

I asked him to throw away and asked him what happened… His reply…

“I dropped it on the floor, so I washed it loh…”

Wahahahaha! He WASHED the baby biscuits! He sayang it, felt wasted if he were to throw away.

Usually I won’t allow a second piece, but had to give him – what a pity looking boy I had the other day! Oh, my sweet little boy, I love you!! And you are so funny!!

In the last 7 days, I have been so tired taking care of 2 sick children. It started with Ian first…

Wed night, Ian came back from school with mild fever. It didn’t go off until Friday, so I brought him to see doctor. At that point, the only issues he had were: sore throat, fever, and mild cough. The throat was slightly reddish, nothing else, no blisters or ulcers. So, I’ve taken it very lightly.

In the evening, Isabel came home with mild fever too. I just thought it was something like common flu (since we had our H1N1 flu jab already, one worry less).

Ian’s fever continued on. Sunday night, I took a look into Isabel’s throat, and was horrified to find out many ulcers on her tonsil pillars and the sides of her throat. I quickly checked her hands and foot, looking for signs of coxsackie (Hand-Foot-Mouth disease) – none appeared. But from past experience, I strongly suspected it was HFM anyway.

Monday morning, brought the 2 of them to see Dr Lee again. This time, he confirmed that they both had Herpangina, a type of blisters caused by coxsackie viruses. So, yes, they both had HFM disease! The clinic had to send a report to ministry, and I had informed the school too. Glad that no other cases were found in their school, or I will be really guilty for that.

I suspect it started with me. Although this is rare in adults, but it is not entirely impossible. I had very bad sore throat since Saturday week ago. No other symptoms, but the throat was so painful that it was unusual for me. Following that, Wed Ian was sick, then Friday Isabel. So I really thought it was me who passed on the virus. I don’t know where I got it thought, having been exposed to too many places. LOL!

There is no medication for this. Just paracetamol (Panadol) to ease the fever, and plenty of fluid to keep them hydrated. That’s it! They can’t eat/swallow, so gave them cold yoghurt and ice-creams. Fruit juice also not favored, due to the acidity. Poor children.

But today Ian is back to school. Isabel will go back tomorrow. Whew!

Ian loves spinach, but not Isabel. I found it very difficult to make Isabel eat more vegetables. She only take that little bit. So, I have been trying to camouflage veggies into other dishes that she likes.

For example, I would grate carrots (what Isabel hates most) and put into fish paste and make into her favorite fish balls. When cooking porridge for her, I would also add the same. It is so easy to do this with carrots, but not so successfully with greens.

I then remembered kids love anything that they can dip. So, I tried this. I bought some tortilla chips (healthier version would be using carrot or cucumber sticks), and made some spinach dips…

They fought for it, until the last drop!!! Of course, I also suspect that they love the tortilla chips instead of the dip. I told them the chips cannot be eaten on its own, must eat with the dip. LOL! Well, this is actually the first time I let them eat chips, so they must find it very interesting!

This last 1 week I have been put stressed many times. First, on Monday was the H1N1 scare. We ended up having the 3 of us had the H1N1 vaccination (myself on Tuesday).

Then, on Thursday night, she came home from school, after shower, kept having lots of discharge on her eyes. At one point she said she couldn’t see (clouded by the discharge). Immediately we took her to see Dr. Lee.

We gave her eye drops every 2 hourly (except sleep) and some anti-histamine to reduce the itch. Midnight, she woke up with both eyes glued by the discharge! She couldn’t open her eyes at all! Pity girl…

But the drops work. On Friday morning, discharge was cleared, and she looked completely alright, though I still kept her at home, afraid that it is still contagious.

Just as we thought she has got well… This morning, she woke up with her eyes like this!

And the right eye slightly better:

We had to cancel her swim lesson, and brought her to see Dr. Lee again. Glad that Dr. Lee said it is “just minor” capillary burst, could be a result of her vomit last night. Whew! But still, scary! Like watching horror movies, with that kind of eyes!

The more I check my past posts, the more I found out about my overdue posts!

Somehow, I have this post about my book collections, and it was “Part 1“. There never was a part 2 or sequence to that! Hahahaha! What happened, I can’t remember. Maybe just simply forgot about it! :p

I now have so many books, thanks to having a nice bookcase. I don’t think I can one by one describe my book collections, and I don’t want to do this in parts already! :p

This is my book collection now:

Last year, I just said that I overestimated my books, that I had a lot of space… Now, I am running out of space! Look, I have to do the double-row stuff now:

Actually, there are so many books I haven’t read on this shelf, but somehow, maybe because they were bought in a “lot” of 20 or 30 books, many titles were not really what I check carefully before buying, I tend to be attracted to new books in the stores! I keep on buying and reading new books, and the older books just sit on the shelves! LOL!

Let me count…
There are 55 books I haven’t read!!! And this is excluding those that I have decided I am not going to read (like those from Michael Palmer), and those that I considered text books (another 12 books).

Aiyoh, aiyoh… I really shouldn’t buy any more… But how do you resist, let’s say if Dan Brown or Tess Gerritsen has a new release? Or, let’s say if Harry Potter is just having the 7th book (I know it is the past, but let’s just imagine!). Those are the situation when I went to grab new books and got tempted to get others.

Now, I have RM50 (or 100) vouchers from MPH, I have to buy some or it would expire soon. Maybe should buy kids books, so it won’t add up to my unread books!