Megan doing 'merlions'

Megan has to take this lil white pill for 28 days, daily. Its the preventive measure dished out by the doc at the TB control unit. It must have tasted horrid cos even with the tiny pill crushed and concealed with her cream cheese cubes, she could taste it and spat it out. Whats worse was that her cough does not seem to be getting any better although we did see some good days last week.

I took her back to Eu Yang Sen clinic to see the physician for her cough since the last 2 courses of antibiotics did not seem to work at all. These TCM thing does not come cheap. Infact, I was rather surprised at its cost - it had cost almost the same as a visit to the paeds! But my child seems to prefer the bitter taste of TCM compared to the cocktail of colourful syrups prescribed by the GP or paediatrician. Hence I thought going to the chinese physician and eating those god-knows-whats-in-there powder will be easier on her.

Problem is, tod started throwing up after the 1st dose of the tcm prescription (or 3rd white pill- depending on how you see it).

Merlion episode 1:
tod threw up milk after she woke up from her afternoon nap. I was not there to witness but my grandma and mom said she vomitted only a little (I've learnt not to ask for details since the degree of accuracy and the amount of truth they will offer is frequently compromised-probably to put my mind at ease)

Merlion episode 2:
visited the dad's parents only to realised we ran out of diapers and decided to quickly make a trip to the supermarket near their home. We asked my in-laws to go with us to the supermarket so that #1:my MIL could do her grocery shopping as well, #2: the grandparents could spend as much time as possible with tod since we do not make a habit of visiting weekly, #3: I secretly hoped that they could help with the tod and let me do some shopping in peace. FIL isn't a great fan of the supermarket and decided to stay in and watch tv instead, so we all went out without him. At this point, perhaps it is also helpful to add that tod seems to prefer the grandpa to grandma. So when we all left without her grandpa, she decided to wail, imagining we had chosen to abandon him and left him all alone in the dark house (my in-laws are very 'green' people, they do not usually have the lights on while they are in the living room watching tv). We had to detour and go back to fetch the grandpa - tod was inconsolable. Grandpa hopped into the car and tod immediately stopped crying. I thought it was finally peace, but before we could reach the junction, tod threw up again. This time it was a real big mess and I was drenched in her milk vomit (right down to my knickers).

Merlion episode 3:
I will skip all the car cleaning details and go straight to our final episode. We all reached home, changed into fresh clothes and got ready for bed. Tod was such a sweetie - finished her milk and closed her eyes, and fell asleep without asking to be carried around - or so I thought. 2 seconds after she 'slept', all the milk came out from her mouth. I wouldn't even say she threw up, it seems effortless, like milk just flowed out of her mouth. I sat her up for fear that she choked on her puke, and more milk was thrown up. Drats, my bedsheets had to be changed and the sheets was fresh-my husband had only put it on like 15min before merlion episode 3. Massive cleaning (and no maid tonight). The only consolation was that I had lay some waterproof sheets and an absorbant sheet underneath the fitted sheet - that minimised the mess.

Something to Share:

1. Lay disposable absorbant sheets underneath mattress - it can be used for toilet training, for accidents such as trapping the urine from an overused diaper, or merlion episodes like mine (I got a pack of 5 for $3+ from ISETAN)
2. Lay waterproofs - helpful to minimise the above mentioned disasters. And these are easy to wash too.
3. Hydrate your child if s/he throws up. Water is more important at this point in time compared to food or even milk. Monitor your child, if water intake is no good, visit the paeds or even children's hospital to be on the safe side.
4. Be patient. Even if you smell like a dumpster, your child will still love you (my tod ran to me and smelled my shirt after I came out from the shower during merlion epidsode 2 - she declared "xiang-xiang", meaning: smells good, and gave me a hug)

You have-I want

It began as a rather ordinary trip out with Megan's Uncle Kelvin (aka "ah-gu-papa", AGPP) and the great grandma. We were heading towards the TB control unit at Moulmein rd. But shortly after we entered the CTE, tod in question decided that she needed mama to be right next to her and started fussing (wailing to be exact). 2 adults couldn't cajole nor contain her. And I had to drive on with all that crying-there was no alternatives, we were on the highway.

Scene 1:
Destination reached. Tod stopped crying miraculously. But the fiasco continues. Strangely, the clinic was packed with other tods on this particular Monday. Mine decided that she was hungry despite the yogurt and muesli she had on the road. She recalled she had her 'stars' (Gerber's wholemeal bananan puffs) when we visited last week and pleaded "stars, please,please". Both tod and I must have made quite a bit of noise negotiating this 'mama forgotten to bring stars today'.

A lady probably felt sympathetic towards my lost cause of explaining to my tod and convinced her older tod to share her honey stars with my whining princess. Friendly tod totters around, looking for the 'di-di' to share her honey stars with. Megan was dressed in a light blue pooh tee and red shorts (and her signature haircut by yours truly) and I don't blame people for mistaking her as a boy. Megan got 1 honey star from friendly tod and shut up for the next 2 minutes.

Scene 2 (quite literally):
Megan spotted another tod feeding on a chocolate roll. And insisted she is starving and needs food. We all tried to ignore her. Her eyes roved around and spotted 2 others having their milk feed and it was "nan-nan" non-stop... No, mama isn't embarrassed that she now has an audience. Reason 1: my child isn't hungry. Reason 2: one of my superpowers is the sheer thickness of my skin, measure it to believe it - my tod has trained me well.

Scene 3:
My supposedly hungry tod was appeased after 1 honey star and 1 morsel of the chocolate roll offered by the stranger of a grandma (whose level of personal hygiene was frowned upon by my own grandma). She decided to amuse herself with her bunny stuff toy and spotted its washing labels. She signed for me to cut it. Sigh.

Intermission:
We were asked to see the nurse to review that jab we had a week ago and my very considerate tod decided that we must pay for consultation on the stop. She took out some money from my purse and insisted that the nurse keeps it. I really couldn't quite decide if I should be amused or mad. But I decided that I would make this intermission as light-hearted as possible and laugh it off. It helps that the nurse was patient with us and rather cool about it.

Scene 4:
A baby was getting her diapers changed. Megan asked for a diaper change although she can be considered toilet trained by now. We continue to ignore her and started singing Barney songs to distract her (Barney "I love you" song is the trick of the month).

Finale:
My daughter doesn't quite understand that the car has no auto pilot function. I had to sit with her at the back. We discussed this for a while and reached a compromise. Mama drives and tod sits next to mama, strapped in her carseat, in front. Tod was happy with the arrangement, but only after minutes of sweating it in the vehicle as Mama cursed-n-swore while fixing the carseat (my mother decided to remove the carseat from this car - my dad's, and did something to the seat belts-I couldn't lengthen them to buckle up my tod). I went berserk and shouted while fixing the carseat and tod wasn't very cooperative. I was very unkind and shouted at my tod and she knew I was mad and tried so hard not to tear or pout (ouch). Imagine that look at my tod's face-semi pout with eyes welling with tears. Tod is probably thinking 'I better not cry cos Mama means business and is really mad, and I can get whacked for real'.

Confession:
I really didn't feel bad towards my tod as I cursed-n-swore and yelled at my tod at that moment. I couldn't understand why it was so difficult for her to understand that I could not possible drive and carry her (we have talked about this many times and she is ok when its Papa's car). But sadly, the guilt does strike. A couple of minutes after we drove off and tod is seated in front, not buckled up cos seat belts too short, and tod is now singing to the radio, the GUILT creeps up and SWALLOWED me. I had to make sure she forgets this episode and yes, I told my tod I love her.

Learning Points:
1. Do not yell at your tod - it makes you tired and guilty. And turn you into an ugly mom.
2. Invest in car seats, and make sure you know how to fix these gadgets. Let the father teach you something, there might be some days when he isn't in town and you need to fiddle with the carseat for whatever reasons.
3. Pack your going-out bags well. If you can, check that you have replenished every item in the bag (we always had 'stars', but today I forgotten to refill).
4. Pack extras, you can be a sympathetic mom/dad for someone =)