Sickness

It was the last Friday before we left for the States. It also happened to be the themed Friday at the school. This particular week was about community helpers. Kodi dressed up as a doctor and had a paper stethoscope around her neck and a doctor's kit in hand.

I dropped her off at school happily but at 11am my phone rang. Teacher Syah said that she was having fever and needed to be picked up from school. When I arrived school, Kodi was lying on a mat asleep while the rest of the kids were getting ready for lunch.

The fever was high, around 39C and she seemed lethargic. I waited for about half an hour before getting her into the car for the doctor's appointment. (a side note, should consider changing pediatrician as the office is ALWAYS busy and couldn't accommodate sick appointments effectively).  It was a new Dr who just joined Camden Medical a few months ago, not Dr. Leow since his appointments were all full. The new doc from Tennessee was medically proficient but not the best with kids. He made Kodi throw up in his office with the tongue depressor!

Nonetheless, the information he provided was helpful. No apparent upper respiratory infection so virus was suspected. He commented that there's been a kind of virus lately that causes high fever, albeit no other accompanying symptoms, and will last for a few days and the kids usually just get well with little medication. That was good news!

 Poor thing just fell into sleep on the way back from the doc appointment.

After we got home, she said she was hungry, so I gave her diluted apple juice first while trying to fix lunch. She gulped it down out of thirst and threw up the juice right away, making both of us distressed even more. I took a deep breath, ensuring her that everything is OK. I changed her and gave her Ibuprofen, and half cup of water, reminding her to sip a little at a time, which seemed to work fine. She was very tired so I put her down to bed, turned on her music, and continued to clean the floor and everything else. 10 minutes later, I found her sound asleep on her bed.

The fever started to go down after half an hour or so.  She woke up around 5pm and feeling hungry. She was SO proud that she didn't suck her thumbs when falling into sleep "yesterday" (referred to all earlier time points in Kodi's vocabulary). So we ate at Crystal Jade in Holland Village and she had a decent dinner of dumplings. She played the doctor-patient game with Daddy at the restaurant.

We gave  her again Ibuprofen before bed and woke her up around 4:30am to head to the airport. She was in good spirit despite having still elevated temperature. The airplane ride was not as smooth as it used to be. She was not feeling well so she slept on and off, fussy at times, skipping most of the meals (worth-skipping anyway, we are not planning to fly with United in the near future), and finally threw up again during our wobbly descent to New York (hit a turbulent).

At Newark airport, while waiting for our bags, she ate some crackers and threw up again. I think this might just be that she was still air sick but ate out of hunger. On the car ride to Delaware, we gave her water and she unfortunately threw up again. We stopped by the Chows and had a light dinner and rice soup there. Kodi was hungry so she had a few spoonfuls of porridge. Threw up in minutes. So this was Saturday.

Kodi woke up at 4:30am on Sunday and seeming doing pretty well. She ate some bread and crackers and did not throw up afterwards. She then slept through most of Sunday fever free.

In all, the virus infection lasted about 3 days, and the temperature peaked around 39.5C at some point with no other symptoms. She threw up several times although it seemed unrelated to the infection, mostly because of the triggered gag reflex, being air sick and maybe lack of sleep. We gave her Ibuprofen or Panadol during the course, every 6 hours while she was having the fever and plenty of fluid. Her appetite was bad and she ate whenever she felt like.

2Y10M Drawing

Drawing an egg.

"I draw an egg!" Kodi shouted and it really looks like an egg! 

She also whipped short strokes and said they are "rains". 

2Y10M Toddler bed

Sleeping on the new toddler bed.

We finally converted the crib to a toddler bed recently when Kodi was about to turn 3. 

It was me who wasn't ready for a toddler bed, rather than for Kodi. Why? It's never been easy for her to fall asleep ever since she was a baby. She needed a lot of help and even though eventually, she settled down with her trusted thumbs and THE blankie. Not to mention that we started weaning her off of thumb sucking since March, which has significantly lengthened the time to fall into sleep. The weaning process is still a work in process. I have the fear that she might get in and out of the rail-less toddler bed constantly. But in my heart I knew she was ready for a bed that she could get on and off herself. She wants to be a big girl.

So we talked about converting her crib for months. It wasn't until we went on to the trip to Bintan, and found out that she was so exhilarated by her own "bed" at Clubmed (more like a large sit-in window sill, day-bed sort of fixture) to forgo sleeping on the "big bed" with us. Hubby said after the trip, "let's do it"! 

April 15, 2012 marked the historic day of forever saying bye-bye to her crib.

Yes, I weeped knowing that my baby has grown up.

Needless to say, she was excited about her new looking bed. We spoke to her about the importance of staying still and not to get off the bed until she is fully awake, and that was it! She has been very good about staying on the rail-less bed.

I would always welcome more of such pleasant surprise in my motherhood life!

Doing the dishes

Kodi asked if she could do the dishes after she had finished her snack (brown sugar jelly that she'd made with our baby sitter Joy the other day), and her apple juice (diluted as usual) after lunch. I am normally open to this option unless they are glass dishes, even though I am aware that her underlying motive is just to play with water. After all I would like to take the advantage of her initiative to participate in house work.

"Of course" I said !

She quickly moved a stool from the living room to the kitchen sink, got the sponge and flip on the faucet. About 5 minutes later she came down from the stool, drying her hands with a kitchen towel. "Are you done Kodi?"  she nodded.

We then moved on to the pre-nap routine, brushing, using toilet, changing and reading books, etc. After I put her down, I went to the kitchen for something else, and there to my amazement, the cups were placed upside down with the spoon placed neatly on top of the cups. Apparently our built-in dish rack out of her reach so she decided to place them by the sink, in the way that she thought was appropriate.  Excellent job my darling!

Washing machine

Kodi got fascinated with the washing machine. 

I told her we need to clean the blanket as we just came back from a trip, hauling as usual her beloved blankie with us wherever we travel. The first thing she did was to get her sandals from the shoe cabinet at the front of the house and ran to the back balcony, where the laundry was to be done. In this way, she could roam freely on the balcony in her own shoes. She gathered some stuffed animals along the way as well and put them all into the washing  machine. She then quietly watched me add the detergent, set the options and close the door. "I help" she said. I know she would like to hit the "start" button to get the washing machine going. So she did. 

She stayed in front of the machine, just staring at the tumbling motions inside the washer. She paused and declared that "they are funny!" followed by giggles and one hand covering her mouth. I said "why is it funny? is it because they are dancing?" "Yeah, it's VERY funny", she emphasized.

Half an hour later, she was still watching intently at the tumbler. Kodi said she wanted it to be done now and she'd like to take them out. Good thinking! I can't unlock the door once the program starts to run. I'd love to know how to crack it open in case I make a mistake of leaving the precious inside to be washed. I have not been able to figure out how. Our other front load machines in the States lets you do that within the first 5 minutes of washing cycle though.

My dear baby. I love that you are enthusiastic about the seemingly little things, whether be it the dancing of your animal friends, the tumbling physics that you are trying to understand, or the special opportunity to stay at the balcony tucked behind the kitchen, the sacred spot for Mommy. 

I pray that you will always be passionate about learning and find new joy in the little things of life.  

Painting in the bathroom

The next day we came back from a wonderful trip to Bintan, Indonesia with our dear friends, we didn't do much but just recouped, cleaned up the suitcase and did loads of laundry. That's not entirely true.... we  made it to a quick play date with moms and kids from my MOPS table at Rochester play house. We came back home and as usual Kodi went to wee wee. After she was done and washing her hands, Kodi looked at me and said in a serious tone that she wanted to paint,  in the bathroom! She's been putting her soap-covered hands on the glass while she takes a shower, finding the bubbles left on the glass hilarious and fun.  I actually had her do this a couple times in the past when I felt exhausted and didn't want to clean up much after painting. So I happily agreed and gave her paints, brush and a roller. 15 minutes later, she was still painting quietly and putting finger prints on the glass of the shower. 30 minutes later, I gave her soap and a sponge to clean up herself and the painting supply, and rinsed off the shower with simply water (thanks to Crayola's washable finger paints). The kiddo had a great time and I didn't have to do much!

First time hosting a BBQ party

We moved to the tropical island for over one year now, about 400 days agp.

After 400 days on the hot and humid island, it's safe to say that at last both hubby and I feel settled down here. Kodi probably feels settled now too with her regular friends and places to go and visit. We asked two of our close friends' family to come and celebrate the Easter weekend (should have planned better but eventually we did this on Good Friday evening, and ended up skipping church service...). Both kids and adults had a lot of fun. Our gourmet conscious friends brought so much yummy stuff to grill and we had a blast! I made the strawberry mousse for dessert. I was very proud to find the little containers for the kiddo, even though Kodi didn't like the mousse at all. What a blessing to have made good friends after 400 days of moving to a new country. God provides and He is faithful!