Silver Tooth (fairy)? - Sep 2013

Jarrett had never been to the dentist before Sep 2013. As in never, not even to step into a clinic to wait for either of us. So naturally, when he complained of a toothache, we didn't know how to talk him into seeing a dentist. I always have a nervous breakdown when I see my dentist! How to tell my kid it's going to be fun??

So anyway, brought the little chap to the first dentist we found - Q&M (or is it Q&A?). We always or at least I did, thought that when a child has a toothache, you either get a filling or you extract it. Right? I mean that was how it worked when I was a kid. BUT no............the dentist took one look and said "He needs a root canal and I am going to send him to a specialist" (the first thing I saw in my mind was $. lol)

??!!???

We were then asked about J's dental habits. He does everything (mostly) right. He brushes his teeth, morning and night, clean diet, not much sugar/candy/lollies or junk food. Of cos he gets ice cream treats once in a while, but they are treats, not a everyday thing. More like a few times each year. Everyone knows he coughs frequently, so we hardly give him ice cream. Poor kid right. I know..=( So no one knew (dentists too) what went wrong.

Well, root canal, for J. I broke out in cold sweat. The last time we brought him for a vaccination jab, it took more than 20 mins and 4 adults to do it. 3 to hold him down, and the doc to do the jab. J was hysterical! Screaming, shouting and crying..so HOW WERE WE GOING TO GET HIM TO DO A ROOT CANAL? I had a gf who opted to extract a tooth instead of getting the procedure because of the fear of pain.

So we went, early Sunday morning. Me stressing out and worrying like a mother hen, WX getting ready to flex some muscles....and these was what happened:

all decked out in cool gear

 getting poked and jabs!

 see how fancy the clinic is decked out. I remember my trips were all to cold clinical rooms with gigantic drills! 

please ignore hello kitty. they ran out of superman. hahaha

ALL DONE WITHOUT ANY FUSS NOR TEARS! Sorry there was some tears, but they were all mine.
I AM SO PROUD OF MY BABY!!!

So he's really loving his cool silver tooth and showing it to everyone and anyone who cares to see.

Goofing around

& seriously, too much Ninjago and Ninja Turtles

Stop Fighting!!!!

The 3 of us in the car, heading to my sis's birthday dinner. I was the driver, while J and Wx were seated at the back.

Wx: So how? Which way to go?
Me: Wait, I think I know. Next to Capitol right?
Wx: Huh? No............it's at Beach Road.
Me: U sure? Isn't it next to Funan Ctr? (getting irritated)
Wx: No!!! It's near to where we went last week (raising his voice)
J: STOP FIGHTING!!!! USE THE GPS!

Children Cancer Foundation (CCF)

Friends and relatives will know Singapore's Children Cancer Foundation has a special meaning to me. 8 years ago, my family lost my niece (aged 9) to Brain Stem Giloma, a very rare brain cancer with no known cure.
While at the hospital, a volunteer approached my brother and sister in law, and asked if there was anything they could do to help fulfill my niece's dream. It could be anything, a Disney vacation or a day being a "president". Nobody wanted to speak to her. We were not rude to her, but kindly rejected her kind efforts. To us, accepting CCF help felt like giving up and death was imminent. I remember the girl, visiting my niece weekly despite our refusal to speak to her. But in her little ways, she had made my niece's stay in the hospital abit more bearable. She loan us a portable DVD player, and would come with different DVDs and story books. Towards the end, there were talks of flying my niece to HK Disneyland, but we ran out of time. I know some of you will be thinking why so sturborn? Why refused the help?

My answer: It was not easy for us to accept a child's life was slipping away, especially someone close to your heart. We didn't want to give up hope, we didn't want to lose faith.

2 Saturdays ago, J's childcare had a fundraising event for CCF. We went and in a tiny way, I hope we helped.

 

Our first official family meeting

We have been having HUGE problems getting Jarrett to wake up in the morning during school days. He has no problem waking up on weekends and usually wakes up much earlier than we desire. But on weekdays, it takes a lot of effort to get him  to get out of bed. It takes alot of shouting, screaming and crying (J, not us) before he makes his way to the toilet to brush his teeth.
Another problem we have is him getting his piano teacher all rile up by the end of a lesson. His teacher is relatively young,  unmarried and doesn't have much experiences handling a 5 year old, mischievous boy. J tends to get way too comfortable with her and tries all his tricks to make lesson "easier"for him. He seriously tests her patiences at times, and in one of the most recent lessons, I told her to be more strict, if not J will be walking all over her. Well, she didn't heed my suggestion, and got really really pissed one night when J refused to listen to her.

So...we have been cracking our brains on how to improve the situations. In the end, I thought "Ok, maybe giving him more say and responsibilities may help". I called for an official family meeting.

We started with giving him choices and let him decide what time to get up and when to go to bed. He picked, 7am and 945pm.
Next, we asked him if he wants to learn how to play the piano. He said yes.
And then we asked him, what he should do to learn better and he listed the below (wrote it all down by himself too)
1. Concentrate and listent to Teacher Lynn
2. Practise hard
3. Play Practise more of on playing with my little finger
4. Practise more finger drills.

Will it work? We don't know..but so far so good! =)

Staycation for the little one

HB & I recently went on a couple trip. To make it up to the little one, we went on a staycation when we returned from our retreat. It wasn't some grand plans, just a simple day, away from home, away from rules, away from work, away from all our responsibilities. So what if the floor is wet? So what if Jarrett spends more time on Cartoon Network?

The boy has grown up!

At 5.5 yrs old, Jarrett has his first playdate at home. The first time he invited someone to our house!
Where did that screaming, brawling baby go? I know this is no big deal, having children over for playdates but this is the first time, he has done it all on his on. I wasn't the one who asked the neighbours to visit. Jarrett was the one, shouting across from our house to theirs, asking them to pop over and check out his piano. Well, it has been more than 20 mins, and they are still out in the living room, battling over Beyblades! And for a few seconds, I tried to imagine having 3 boys...shudders...not bad, just can't image having all that noise and energy in the house 24/7.

Confirmed!

My little baby is going to P1 next year. Where did all the time go?