About vaccinations.. Am I the odd parent?

The last time we visited Dr Beardy (affectionately called 'Da Hu Zi Yi Sheng' in mandarin- our family GP) for Ya tou's vaccination, he asked if I wanted to give Zhirui the Chicken pox jab.

I pondered for quite a while. The fact is that I have already got an answer, which is 'No', but wondered if I should reconsider..

He helped to break the silence by informing me that most parents would do so.

"But during my generation, we have been living along with Chicken pox. I mean, it is a common childhood disease and not a threat to life." I provided my point.

GP explained that it saves parents alot of trouble and the child from suffering.

This set me thinking on why this difference in mentality...
SB and I are pro-natural and we try to adopt a natural way of life as much as possible. When Zhirui was still a bean in my womb, we had decided to deliver her naturally, avoid epidural and practise total breast-feeding. (We were quite disturbed when our gynae used a vacuum to assist her birth without seeking our opinion.)

Back to the point on vaccines, perhaps parents nowadays are more eager to protect their children from sickness, germs, suffering. While we try to shield our children from all perceived harms, are we also making them more vulnerable? While we try to alleviate their suffering, would they grow up to be less emphathetic of the less fortunate?

I watched a documentary on acute eczema on children recently. A study was conducted to examine the outcome of a group of eczema-inflicted children after daily play sessions in the garden. Children were exposed to soil and dirt during play. There was considerable improvement in conditions of these children. It concluded that 'squeaky clean' and aseptic environment could have made our bodies less resistant and leading higher occurences of allergies.

Just sharing another school of thought. :) For a path less travelled, it takes a strong belief.

Home alone (in car)

Since Zhirui's last fall from the high chair on a Daddy-less evening, I haven't had feelings of "ants on a hot pan" for some while.. until yesterday..

I was fetching Zhirui home from nanny's place as usual after work. The weather was wet and I had to carry Zhirui on one hand and hold the umbrella on the other. After managing her down onto the passenger seat, I didn't know why I did the following stupid thing: I gave Zhirui my car keys (to play).

Seconds odd after closing the passenger door, I heard a familiar 'BEEP' sound and the deadly 'shutting' sounds of the car locks.

OMG!.. Ya tou has locked the car!! I quickly pull the door handles and true enough and it was the worst I've imagined! How could I be so foolish? I could have known better that Ya tou loves pressing on my car remote key all this while..

I tapped frantically on the windows and signed her to press the unlock buttons on the keys. Think Zhirui got my idea and kept pressing on the button happily. "No Zhirui.. not the big button, press the smaller one.. the one beside." I pleaded her. But she just love the 'locking' button. I prayed hard that she won't drop the keys into some odd corners. There will still be hope if so.

My next resort is to get the spare key. Luckily my house is not far from nanny's. "Ok, will ask nanny to look after Zhirui as I go home to get the spare key." I thought. As these tots reeled thru my mind, Zhirui had dropped the keys onto the seat and moved to the driver's seat to play on the steering wheel.

"Wait a minute, but my home keys are in my bag, which is in the car!!" Oh nooo... So need to wait for SB to get home.. Will Zhirui suffocate in the car by then?!  (Negative breeds negative..).

I borrowed a handphone (hp was in my bag too) from a passer-by and tried calling SB. What can be worse? No reception, he's in the tunnel! Urghh....

Just at this darkest moment, I heard "shutting" sounds of the car lock again, but without a "Beep". As swift as my hands could, I reached for the car handles and pulled. "YES! Thank God! It's opened!"

Zhirui was standing on the passenger seat and stepping on the car keys. Believe her feet had pressed on the 'unlock' button. :)

Lesson learnt: I shall never to leave the car keys with Zhirui alone in the car. Phew...  

Hands Onz!

This a continuation of my previous post on Ya tou's new developments.

We found that she is very skilled in using her hands. Besides having the forte in drawing, Zhirui is able to drink from a glass, use a comb (what a waste of talent as we recently shaved her head! haha..), wipe her mouth. The newest stunt she's mastering now is self-feeding using a spoon.

Ya tou called me

How can I not jot this into my blog?... :)

Two days ago, a Saturday morning just moments after waking up, Ya tou finally called me "Mummy". She said it when Daddy prompted her. But subsequently she short-cut it to "Mimi"-- erm.. eventhough it sounds like some 80's nightclub hostess, it does not fail to melt my heart everytime she says it. (FYI, she called "Daddy" first many months ago. So it is true.. as I read somewhere before that it's easier for babies to say 'da' than 'ma'.)

Despite taking a blog break for nearly a month, things have been very happening in Ya tou's world.. as usual. :)
In terms of language development, she has expanded her vocab to daily usage words like bowl, bread, biscuit, banana, jam, chair, paper, apple, slide, bird, dog, fish, duck, bag, shoes, please, jie jie (sister), nai nai (grannny)...

I notice how intelligent she is in understanding our instructions.. When I told her, "Zhirui, walk on your own.", she would let go of my hand and walk by herself. During bathtime, I need her to stand and hold against the wall. I say, "Zhirui, on the wall please" and she would do as asked.

When it's time for milk, I'd say, "Zhirui, time for milk. Go to the bedroom." She will walk to the bedroom, climb up the bed. I follow and ask, "Where is the pillow?" She points to her own pillow. "Can you help Mummy take the pillow?" She pulls the pillow onto the centre of the bed and lie down, waiting for me to pass her the milk bottle.

Ya tou loves mingling with the kitchen drawers whenever I'm in the kitchen cooking. She would drag the kitchen towels, sponges out and scatter them onto the floor. When I'm done with my work, I'll ask her, "Zhirui, please put the things back." She would then squat down and start picking up the things and put them back into the drawer. "Very good girl. Close the drawers." and she'll push the drawers close.

Paint my love

Have been observing that Zhirui is quite skilled in holding pens. Not long, we let her drew freely on paper with pen or pencil. She loves the activity, many a times bugging me to give her the pen and paper. Well, so far her pieces were meshes of lines and dots. :)

I wondered if she'll enjoy drawing more if there were colours..

So I wreck my brains to think of a way to let her do painting without having to worry that she may accidentally ingest the paint. Ah haa!! I'll get her edible paint! Food colourings! As mooncake festival's around the corner, food colourings are on discounts. Bingo! I got primary colours- red, yellow and blue.

I placed Zhirui on her high chair, put her on a makeshift art apron (actually a plastic bag with holes torn on its base and 2 sides), prepared bowls of the diluted colourings, a brush and paper.

As I handed her the brush with some anxiety and anticipation.. i wondered what can be the outcome?
See for yourself..

She does look serious in working on her virgin piece ya..  :P

Her hands were badly stained by the colouring and faint blotches lingered on her hands for almost 2 days. If anyone has a better way to conduct painting for babies, pls share with me. :)

Japanese- Hiragana

This set consists of 47 cards including title cover.
Card specs: 300gsm, A5, double-sided
Price: S$18.80

Flags of Asia

Zhirui was totally intrigued by this set becos of its bright, colourful pictures.

This set consists of 52 cards including title cover.

Card specs: 300gsm, A5 size, double-sided

Price: S$33.80