You know your little girl is no longer little when....

...she tells you that her classmate R has her first period, and she found out about it on .... gasp! Facebook!!

Yes, Nic's classmate R had her first period recently, and decided to share her experience with her peers on her facebook account, not realising that what transcends between her friends and herself on the Wall are all out there for the world to gawk!

And so with that, we had the Talk. She had asked about the Whisper and Kotex ads that were airing on TV, and I had explained briefly about it. Well, this time round, we went into specifics, like what happens, dealing with it, the inconveniences, keeping track of it, etc...woman to girl.

I found this on the web, if anyone of you mommies has problem having the Talk.

Everything you can possibly think of, ranging from books, disposable panties, starter kit, they have it here. Pretty helpful site for inspiration as to what your little girl would probably need to deal with her first period.

Well, I am glad I had the chance to talk to her about it. Its never too early to talk to her about it, though Nic has just turned 9, and still pretty much a kid. Her classmate R will only turn 10 in March'11, which makes her technically 9 years old when she had her first period. I guess girls these days are hitting puberty at a much younger age. Not a good sign, as there had been researches on breast cancer being linked to early puberty.

And so with that Talk, we had another conversation. And that is the power of the social media, and how certain things should just stay discreet...

hmm...

My poor neglected blog. I have just been so caught up with the goodness of life that I guess i have neglected my little outlet of solace.



Things have been great and I am enjoying the quiet joy of my life right now. I just had my scans done last week. As usual, the days creeping up to the scan day is filled with anxiety and restlessness. And as Dr Lee deliver my "unremarkable" scan results, it was a great relief. I never knew "unremarkable" results could sound so good.

On the homefront, Mike has taken on a newfound passion in photography. He has invested money on a DSLR, and time on photography courses and photo-taking outings. Well, at least someone in the family can now take great photos. Definitely beats me in my pathetic photo taking skills using my point and shoot camera ANYTIME!


As for Nic, she seems to be growing up quite a bit. She enjoys listening to pop music, and enjoys artiste like Justin Bieber (eeks!), Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus. She uploads their music to her Ipod Touch (her weekend toy), and listens to their music with the earpiece plug in, oblivious to everything and everyone.

Class work now include group projects, and the girls would arrange to go to each others home for group work and afterwhich they will be just "hanging out" (till we pick her up). And she is 8 (turning 9 in dec). Maybe i was a late bloomer, but I don't remember hanging out with my school friends at their home that young. I was still playing barbie dolls at my neighbour's home then. i really can't imagine how much she has grown. She is a baby no more. I couldn't help but fill a little tinge of sadness at how the years have gone by. But I couldn't help but be very thankful that I can be around for her as she grows each day.

Till the next update ...

No Excuses...for neglecting the Blog

I can't imagine, that I have neglected my blog. No excuses. It just has been such a busy busy month.

This weekend, I celebrated my turning one more year older in a quiet and in the company of my treasured family members. It is also Mother's Day, and also the weekend before Nicole sits for her mid-year examinations. And becasue its the weekend before the examinations, there hasn't been much of a celebrations, as we didn't want Nic to be distracted.


What can I say, I think I am more anxious than Nic herself, and she is the one taking the examination. Though I am constantly reminding myself not to stress the kid, I couldn't help being anxious that she isn't putting in as much effort as i want her to. Oh well, I am just glad that she will be sitting for the last paper tomorrow. Fingers crossed that she will clear all the papers...no red dots

Busy Busy Busy

Its been a week since we returned from our vacation, and i haven't been busier.


There's Christmas lunch, Boxing Day, and also getting Nic ready for school. I am not sure which is tougher, getting her body clock back in sync or getting her ready for the new school term. Its been a week since our return, and Nic is still sleeping really early at night and waking up in the wee hours of the morning. Well, we just need to tune it a little, before she could wake at 5.30 am during the weekdays without any whining.

See this pic? Thats Nic in her new school uniform just before she entered Primary One. Right now, she could barely fit into it. The skirt falls right above her knee, and she can't buckle her belt. Well, i thought we could adjust the hemline with a little sewing, but unfortunately its a no-go cos' the pinaform is also a little tight round her chest. Sigh...so time for a change

So in the midst of our busy schedule, we brought her to the factory to purchase a new set of pinaforms. We were not the only parents there. the reception area was packed with like-minded parents on our last minute mission.

Nic's pinaform is now 2 sizes larger. Its a little long, but in true IJ tradition, I have taught her how to pull out the pinaform on the front so that it puffs up a little, thus shortening the pinaform...just the way mummy used to wear it, but mummy's skirt was a little shorter :P

Today, I Celebrate...

Today, I celebrate the birthday of my first born, my baby girl. Well, you are a baby girl no more. You are growing up just so quickly. Who would have thought that you are turning 8 today! My goodness...how time flies!

And as I relish in the joy of being your mummy and buddy (she has developed a habit of putting her arm round our shoulder, and going "My buddy"), I am just so glad to be around to help you blow out the candles on the cake.

Well, Happy Birthday, Sweetie! May all your wishes come true

Another Little Bump on the Road

Sigh...who would have thought a sumptious dinner of crab meehoon on sunday would have led to this.

It was just one of those weekends that we decided to have Nic's favourite meehoon soup at our tze cha place downstairs. Nic usually have the meehoon and soup without the crab. Being the picky eater that she is, she decided to be a little adventurous this time round and to try the crab meat as well. She loved the taste of the succulent crabmeat, and had a claw and a single portion of the body as well. Who would have thought...

We woke up on Monday and as we prepare her for school, we saw 2 little red spot on her right cheek. Thinking that its probably some insect bite, we applied some cream and sent her off to school. Alarm bells rang, when she came home from school with a large (about 50 cent coin) red patch on her cheek, the same cheek which we thought were bitten by bugs.

The redness subsequently spread to her ear, and more small red spots appeared on her neck, arms and legs. Brought her to the clinic and were given some antibiotics, cream and anti-itchiness medication.

Its been 4 days already since we had the crabs and the redness is still there. We are pretty concern as its on her face. We are watching her closely, and will probably bring her to the hospital if the redness didn't subside. Nic had a previous episode of food allergy as well, when her eyes became puffy after consuming 2 tablespoon of birdnest. That subsided after a day, and we ruled that she will not be able to have anymore birdnest.

Feeling really heartsick. So poor thing :(

Argh! chicken pox

Nicole is down with chicken pox.

Yes, she will be away from school for the entire week. she is more likely to be quarantined at home while she recovers.

Nic is relatively active and almost her usual self, other than a temperature of 38.2 degree.
The doc gave her fever medication, medication for the chicken pox and itchiness, some calamine lotion for applying, and advice for plenty of rest, and to stay home. Well, thats what the doc said, but from what my mum and aunties advised, there's definitely a longer list of "dos" and "don'ts"!

No picking the pox - for obvious reason, we don't want to have pot marks
No Seafood - may cause even more itchiness
No snacks and Heaty Food - for obvious reason
No black sauce - may cause the pot marks to turn black (huh ??????)
No chicken - (HUH ?????)

Whatever, nursing a feverish child is bad enough. I can't imagine there's so many issues with the diet. Anyway, gonna be staying home a lot more this week

Fast Car Ain't Gonna impress Nic

Who would think, a car like this is not gonna impress my little Nic

We had just parked our car at the carpark, and were making our way to the shopping mall, when we pass a beautiful shiny silver car parked in one of the lots. She remarked: " Mummy, Look! This car must be for short people, the car is so small!"

I gasped" did you know how expensive this car is?"
"No, but the car is so small, how can it be expensive?" Hmmm

I guess it will take a couple more years before she truely appreciates and understand the value of a shiny silver porsche.

Child Labour...Not!

Being away for 3 days has left me with a lots of backlogs. Lots of emails to respond to, orders to pack, and mailed out. Its a good kind of busy, and I am glad :)

To cope, I decided to rope in my little helper. She is still in her pajamas, helping me stick address labels and CN 22 stickers on envelopes. Saves me some work, and she is happy she could help. So the next time you receive a package from Little Gems, chances are the stickers are stuck there by my little helper :)

I will be holed up at home these few days. I had these viral warts, skin tags on my neck which were removed by laser yesterday. I splattered like 2 tubes of emla to numb the entire area. My treshold for pain seems to have diminished as time passes. Anyway, it worked, and the doc was "trigger-happy" as she went around zapping all the buggers on my neck. Didn't realise i had that many, until I saw myself in the mirror. I look like I got some major skin problem on my neck.

The entire area feel raw, and was painful when the anaesthesia wore off. Hopefully, the skin recover nicely. Not that anyone is gonna notice my neck, but what the heck!

Anyway, not gonna be posting gross pics of my neck. Took a couple of shots of Nic yesterday.
Sigh....Look how she has grown...

Eyes of the Beholder

Yes, its official, my little angel face has just become a statistic in the worsening problem of children afflicted with myopia in Singapore. We received a letter from the Health Promotion Board to bring her in for an eye test. We didn't think much of it, as she has not exhibit any problems with her vision.

Anyway, Mike is extremely upset about it, and erm...in denial now that her Precious is in need of spectacles. He kept asking Nic if she recognises all the letters in the alphabet. I guess we would probably be a wee bit comforted if her poor eyesight was a result if reading too much books. Unfortunately, its likely due to watching too much TV and computer games.

Well, at this point in time, other than saving for her college funds, we would probably have to start saving up for Lasik treatment before she evolves into Ugly Betty

Falling with Grace

Today, Nicole started her first rollerblading lesson. Armed with her new sets of wheels, her protective gear, and a whole lot of attitude, she started her lesson proper at 8.00 pm at the basketball court located just across the road. She picked up some tricks quite quickly, and could now pick herself up when she falls...on her own, and a little bit of blading. Not too bad for just 1 hour's worth of effort. She has also made a new friend at her class, an 8 year old girl Renee, who could do quite a bit of magic with her wheels. Renee wasn't there for lessons, but was simply there, cos' she loves hanging out with the older children there. She gave nic some sort of motivation to work harder at learning the new skills, and some hand-holding as well.

We decided that we will sign her up for the class, as we would like to build up her can-do attitude. Nic does lacks some confidence in some areas, and could be painfully shy when it comes to socialising. We figured that rollerblading would build up some confidencce in her, and would be a good form of exercise for her too.

Looking at the kids wheezing by, Mike and myself were pretty tempted to pick up the sport. Given our age, guess it may be a bit of a problem, as we are at the age where we are "afraid to fall". These kids have no qualms landing on their butt, on their face. We could never be able to do that. We would probably "break a leg"

Freaked

Went for scans yesterday. Exhausting day started at 930 am at the Cancer Centre being the first stop. The one-prick wonder nurse (my fav) took 2 vials of blood from me. i got her to set the plug as well, so that i do not need to be pricked again by some inexperienced nurses.

i am just so thankful for the nurses at the Cancer Centre, who has such amazing skills, especially when it comes to looking for almost non-existent veins. i didn't think much of nursing as a career of choice, but having gone through what i am going through, i have certain level of respect for them. To be a nurse in the cancer centre, I applaud them for their compassion, patience, and strength of character to be able to treat a patient, who may not be able to make it through for the next round of treatment. I do wonder what sort of emotions go through their mind when they hear that a patient they have been treating for x number of years has passed on. And here i digress again

Anyway, next stop was Nuclear Medicine, where i was to have my bone scans done. They injected me with some substance, and while waiting for the dye to take effect, i had my mammogram done. Something i hate doing. Doing the mammogram often put me to tears. Not only was it really painful, but often than not, it often brought back so much painful memories. i had to do the mammogram twice. Not sure why, but the nurses claim that they want to have clearer scans. Sigh...thats what they told me when i was first diagnosed. ?Didn't the final results come back positive. I was just so overwhelmed with emotions when they told me that i need to do it the second time round.

Bone scans seems to take an extra long time to complete as well. i have been having some aches and pains which i am attributing to the new drugs i am taking. One of the side effects listed was bone pain. i' often feel extreme sadness when i need to do these scans. I shed quiet tears when i was lying on these large forboding machines which is gonna determine my fate. During these moments, I often wondered why i need to go through what i am going through

The CT scan was sort of uneventful, in a way, thankfully. It was a quickie compared to the previous two tests. However, what greeted me at the waiting area was a bald little girl sleeping on a trolley bed, waiting to be scanned, her anxious parents waiting by her side. She is not much older than Nic. I remebered in 2003, when I was waiting for the results of my scans, before my actual diagnosis, Nic, not even 2 years of age, was admitted to the hospital as she had a burning fever that just wouldn't go away for a whole week. She was admitted for observation, for suspected Kawasaki disease, which could be deadly. I remembered being by her bedside, very afraid, and praying: Lord, let it be me. i can take the suffering better than her. I am just so grateful the fever went away, Nic recovered, and was discharged shortly after.

So here i am waiting anxiously for the phone call, which i prayed will not come. Its pretty irritating how they tell you that if you are ok, they will not call you, and that they will only call you if they need to examine you further. Anyway, I have an appointment with my oncologist next monday. Note to self: Need to ask her about doing a CEA

Warm Fuzzy Feeling

While having dinner yesterday, Nic asked how I am feeling. I have been nursing a cough the past few days. I told her i am feeling a better, why? She replied that she knows why. She had told her Sunday School teacher about it, and they have prayed for me to get better. God hear the prayers of little children :)

Busy Busy Busy

Our life has taken on a new rymtham with Nic attending formal school. We wake up at 5am, and get ourselves ready. Nic gets a bonus half hour extra of sleep while we shower, and prepare breakfast, and pack her lunch box.

Here she is managing a smile for the camera while she has her breakfast of sauages and milo.

The bus comes by to pick her up at 6.00 am. And I am back at home reading the papers, doing the laundry, web surfing and probably preparing her lunch, while waiting for her return at 2.00pm. Thats like 8 hours of ME time :)

Not sure if we made the right decision when we decided to put her in my alma mata. I guess we will have to wait and see how it goes.