make it BIG!!

First time Adam uttered this word, we couldn't really understand him.. He was asking his daddy to add more Dhal for his roti canai..
Adam: MakeA big daddy..
Daddy: Huh?
Adam: MakeA BIG! MakeA BIG! MakeA BIG!
Daddy: What?
Mommy: Can you say nicely Adam?
Adam: MakeA big please daddy.. do NOT makeA small...
Mommy & Daddy: oooo nak banyak... :)

After a few times he now knows to say it properly.. The other day, we were having dinner with my parents and brother. Adam asked his daddy to pour some more Tomato Sauce for his Cheese Wanton but he was pointing to the chilli sauce bottle..

Adam: Tomato please Daddy.. (while pointing to the chilli sauce bottle)
Daddy: No Adam, that's chilli.. this is tomato sauce (pointing at the tomato sauce bottle)
Adam: Noo!!!!! This ONE!!! THIS ONE!!!!

My Dad, brother, me, my mom, everybody tried to tell Adam the bottle he was referring to was chilli sauce.. But Adam being Adam, refused to listen and feels he is right. So, daddy poured the chilli sauce..

Adam: Make it bigger Daddy.. Make it BIGGER!
Daddy: this is enough..
Adam: Make it BIGGER! do not make it small...
Dadday: Whateva.. (and poured some more)

Adam happily dipped his wanton into the sauce and took a bite..
Adam: Air! Air! (Drink it then look at mommy)

Adam: Mommy, that's chilli pidas! (pointing to the chilli sauce bottle)
Mommy: Aku pulak kena sekolah ngan dia.. haishhhh...

Adam's First: Train Rides

Ni cerita dah basi tapi nak jugak tulis sebab this was the first time Adam jumpa train betul-betul. Selama ni train rides yang kat shopping complex and TV and his books ajelah. It was an impromptu plan. We visited hubby's brother who was admitted at KJMC and kebetulan tak ada plan apa hari tu, terus suggest to hubby to park dekat Putra LRT KJ and bawak Adam naik train.

On the way to the station, dah start tunjuk kat Adam LRT yang lalu lalang yang boleh nampak from kereta. So, bila sampai dekat platform tu, Adam was so excited to see the train betul-betul depan dia. Masuk je dalam train tu Adam cepat-cepat nak duduk sebelah Mommy. His expression masa tu memang priceless. Muka kagum and trying to accept the fact that he was in an actual train.

Then he started making train sound "choo chooo... chug chug chug.. choo.. chooo..". Sangat seronok tengok muka dia yang excited. Lepas tu, sesi tunjuk cars and trees kat luar train pulak..

When hubby decided that we will stop at KL Sentral, sajalah bagitau Adam "OK Adam, we are here!" bila sampai one of the station. Menjerit Adam tak nak turun. Tak puas lagi! Did that for 2 stations kut saja nak bagi dia tau that the ride won't last forever. So bila sampai KL Sentral, he was okay bila ajak keluar.

Next stop? Makan dulu!!!! We had our lunch at KFC. Lepas tu amik komuter pergi stesen Kuala Lumpur pulak.

Told hubby that rasanya semua long distance train dah pindah to KL Sentral tapi kitorang pergi jugak as I was not so sure. Turned out betul semua train dah pindah to KL Sentral. Sedih pulak tengok the train station that was so majestic before and selalu penuh je orang sekarang dah kosong. Nasib baik jugak kitorang decided to go there sebab while waiting for Adam to refuel, dapat tengok the real long distance train lalu. Adalah a few and dapat jugak tengok  train Pos Malaysia yang colourful.

While waiting for the train, sempatlah beli Cheezels satu tapi silap besarlah bagi Adam pegang. Langsung tak nak bagi kat Daddy dia. Tapi yang comelnya, a few days after that, Adam buka fridge and nampak packet cheezels tu dia terus cerita pasal Choo Choo Train.

On our way back to Kelana Jaya, Adam asyik lari-lari from Mommy to Daddy and Daddy to Mommy. Dahlah baru minum susu and makan Cheezels. So as soon as we reached Kelana Jaya station, Adam muntah dalam train. Dahlah train tu continue pergi KL balik. Kesianla penumpang-penumpang lepas tu sebab tak sempat nak bersihkan pun dah kena turun.

Masuk saja kereta, Adam terus tidur and sambung sampai ke rumah. The 2 hours train rides (and lunch) was really worth it. So, if you have no plan for the weekend, why don't you take your kids for train rides? It's cheap and they will surely love it :)

Siri Mari Memasak: Chicken Stock/Broth using Slow Cooker

I used to stock up lots of instant finger food like sausages, burgers, nuggets, drummets, fries and so on. But a couple of months back, I realised my maid fried the chicken nuggets for Adam almost every day for him to eat with his nasi goreng or spaghetti. Even I have asked her not to do that, her answer was "tapi Adam sukaaa". That's when I decided to put a stop to it by not buying them anymore.

That doesn't mean I don't allow Adam to eat nuggets and all but at least not at home. Adam is only 2 and he doesn't know to ask for specific food yet. So before he is 5 and refuse to eat if he doesn't have fries for lunch, nuggets for tea and so on, I vowed on having healthier food at home. Because God knows what they put in our food when we dine outside. And we eat out quite often. 

I never use chicken stock in Adam's food before and though many recipe requested for chicken stock I usually omit it. Last 2 months, I made my first batch of chicken stock and lovin' it! I finally got to use the slow cooker I received as a wedding gift more than 3 years ago. My maid used the stock to make Adam's soup and I used it in all sorts of dishes. It certainly added flavour to my dishes and definitely healthier than the chicken cubes. Now we are almost out of the stock so I am making a new one and wanted to share the recipe with you.

Ingredients

5 chicken carcasses (you can buy it at the hypermarket)

5 stalks of celery, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

1 1/2 onion, quartered

1 sprig fresh rosemary

2 sprigs fresh parsley

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1.8 litres of water

Directions

1. Place everything in the slow cooker.

2. Cook on low setting for 10 hours.

3. Strain the broth. You can discard the vegetable. The chicken can be used in soup.

4. Keep in refrigerator for a few hours until you can see the foam of fat layer on top. Carefully scoop off the fat and you will have clear broth. Divide them into small containers and freeze them for later use. Make sure you always have a small container in the fridge for daily use. 

Easy peasy right? Cheers to a healthier home cooked meal! 

Review on Adam's stuff - Part 3

Dilemma on which stroller to buy? Sling or carrier? Friends were asking for help in making decision so let me just share my experience..

Mothercare Travel System

I was so tempted to buy Quinny or some other state of the art la konon 3 wheeler strollers and almost get one when suddenly my father gave me a call asking me to pick up my stuffs from Mothercare. Yeap, my father was kind enough to buy us this travel system. Anyway, back to the point, why do I love this travel system? First, you can easily attach the car seat to the stroller. So even if the baby is sleeping you don't have to wake the baby up when you reach your destination. The car seat also works like a bouncer so you can just park your baby on the table while you are having tea.

The stroller only needs one twist to close or open. That means I can handle it with one hand while my other hand is holding the baby. And of course the best part is, the stroller is so roomy that I can fill the stroller with all my shopping bags even with the baby inside it. And when the baby is bigger, he/she might be able to help you push the stroller full of bags just like Adam did.

Mothercare 3-position carrier

When Adam was a baby, I used this carrier a lot especially when we went out for dinner to places that was hard to park a stroller. With your hands free, you can eat or gossip freely. Even when we were out with stroller, I still bring this along because after hours in the stroller, babies tend to be cranky and want to be held. You can either carry him facing you, facing the front or carry him on your back. When Adam was younger, he loves to be carried facing me but when he was bigger, he preferred facing the front as he can see where we were going.

Mothercare Walking Assistant

I bought this Walking Assistant when Adam was about 7 months. By then he can stand on his own and walk sideways while holding tables or chairs. I was in between maid and Adam stayed with my parents in Terengganu so I seldom had the opportunity to use it. I found it helpful as it helps your child to have the confidence to walk and save you from back pain if you hold the baby's hands to help them walk. This is how you hold the walking assistant. Unfortunately I don't have any picture of Adam in it.

Review on Adam's stuff - Part 1

As I mentioned in my previous post, dah lama giler I made a promise to my friend to write a review on some of Adam's toys. Tapi asyik tangguh2 sampai semua toys ni dah masuk storeroom dah pun :) Better late than nothing! :D

Lamaze Gardenbug Wrist Rattle and Foot Finder Set and Nuby Teething Blankie Toy - Monkey 

 Adam and his wrist rattle and monkey blankie

I think Adam was a week shy of his 3 months birthday in this picture. I really love these two stuff.

This blankie helped Adam with his gripping. Masa mula2 bagi tu Adam tak pandai pegang lagi. Tapi sebab blankie ni kan nipis so sangat senang dia pegang and of course masuk mulut lah kan.. I noticed lepas ada blankie ni lah Adam started to grip better. The best part is sangat senang nak basuh! Masuk je washing machine :) So sentiasa bersih for your lil baby :)

These wrist rattle and feer finder pun sangat bes! Sebab babies kan sentiasa gerak-gerakkan kaki and tangan dia tana arah tujuan. So, bisinglah rattle tu and dia akan cari-cari. Helped me to keep Adam occupied if I had other things to do.

Owh and both of these adalah less than RM100. Harga sebenar tak ingat tapi affordable lah.. And banyak lagi brand lain di pasaran.. Yang penting boleh keep baby occupied :)

Alamak, lambat dah nak pegi meeting. To be continued.... :)

Vaccination for your child(ren)

A couple of weeks ago, my cousin's 6 months old daughter was hospitalized for diarrhea caused by rotavirus. She was hospitalized for about a week. It was heart breaking to see the drip bandaged to her hand. Last week, a friend to my friend lost her 15 months baby due to diarrhea and rotavirus, again, was the culprit. I was told the virus has creeped into her central nervous system and infected her brain. The baby had diarrhea so the parents brought her to a clinic and was given some medicine. After 2 days her condition did not improve so they brought her to a private hospital and were told the baby was already dehydrated. After 5 days on life support system, she left to heaven.

Both babies did not take extra immunisation apart from those made compulsory by the government. And both could actually be prevented if they have taken the rotavirus vaccine. The first mother was not even aware of the existance of rotavirus vaccine while the second mother thought it was too expensive. It costs about RM600 to RM750 for 3 shots. But the cost for not taking it? More than RM2k for the first case and the life of the baby for the second case.

When Adam was younger, I took the initiative to ask Adam's paed and the doctor in our local clinic for advise on whether we should take the additional vaccines. My favourite book on childcare, "What to Expect" series also listed the vaccines that are made compulsory in developed countries. That was how I learned about the importance of vaccination.

At first it was hard to convince my husband as it costs alot of money, and I had just had a caesarian which costs us alot more money. After I made my case, he finally agreed to it. My mom was not too happy at first as she said I gave Adam too many shots so to her it was like so many chemical going into that little boy's body. So I explained to her what vaccination is all about and now she is the one who encouraged other new parents to give the additional vaccines for their baby.

During vaccination (most but not all), the doctor will insert a weak or dead disease germ into our body. That is how our body will develop its own defence system (antibodies) to protect ourselves against the germs. So, the next time a real strong germ attack, our body can already recognize it and do what needs to be done to shoo them away. Some of these antibodies could remember the germs for the rest of our life. But some, needs a periodical reminder that is why sometimes we have to take the booster shot.

So, what additional vaccines can you get for your child(ren)? I am not qualified to recommend them to you but these are the additional vaccines we took for our little Adam:

1) Rotarix (Rotavirus vaccine) - at 2, 4, 6 months. It helps to fight Rotavirus, the main cause for severe diarrhea in babies.

2) Prevenar (Pneumococcal vaccine) - at 7, 8, 10 months. If your child is above 1 year, only 2 shots are needed. It helps to fight among others, pneumonia and meningitis. I took this vaccine because each time Adam had flu and cough, he will also gets ear infection apart from the high fever. Upon consulting with our local doctor, she advised us to take the vaccine as Pneumococcus is one of the common bacteria that causes ear infection in young children. So we took the chance hoping to kill 2 birds in one stone. Alhamdulillah, after taking the vaccine, Adam did not have ear infection anymore. So we did kill 2 birds in one stone :)

3) Flu Shot (Influenza Vaccine) - to be taken once a year. My colleague told me that she sent her kids for flu shot every year. At that point of time I was not aware of its effectiveness.We took this shot because Adam was about to go back to my parents' place and my brother was a doctor in the H1N1 ward at that time. So, as a precaution we took the shot. Prior to that, Adam had flu that leads to cough and fever almost every other month. After the shot, he had flu only twice. The first one affected the whole family so it might not be the common seasonal flu and the second time, the colour of the mucus was clear and it went away after 2 days without affecting Adam much. I will definitely continue to get him the annual flu shot.

Hope my experience could help you in making the decision whether or not to spend the extra money on vaccination. But of course, consult your doctor first :)

Project Adam 365 : 2010

Finally! After much work and effort from everybody in my family, Project Adam 365 is finally completed. I wanna thank everybody including those who commented and like the photos in my FB because all of you has given me the strength and courage to complete it. When people asked if I want to continue in 2011, without any doubt I said no. It was not easy. Especially when I send Adam back to my hometown. I have to trouble everybody to ensure they take a photo of Adam and send it to me. Having said that, I would want to take the challenge for my next child(ren) because at the end of the day, the compilation of photos showed how your child has grown throughout the year.

To my little Adam, I hope you would understand how much you mean to me and our family. Everybody played their part to ensure our little gift for you would be a reality. You made it easy for us with all your candid action and creative act in exploring the world. You inspired us by your positive atttitude and determination in learning new things. I wish you would stay as my little baby forever :) I love you son..

tonsillitis

When we woke up on Saturday morning, Adam was having a fever. Thinking it was his molar teeth sprouting out, I just gave him paracetamol every 4 hours. That night, he woke up in the middle of the night with a rather high temperature. Still assuming it's his teeth, I just gave him rectal supp and tepid sponged him. I switched on the laptop and let him watched Ice Age 3 to sleep.

On Sunday, Adam still had his fever. He was very cranky and I noticed he has a foul smell breath. I was thinking "takkan kecik-kecik lagi dah ada gigi rosak".. I looked into his mouth and saw no rotten tooth.. His upper gum was still swollen. Very swollen. So, I still presumed that his fever was due to the molars. I still continued giving him his paracetamol 4 hourly.

Monday morning came. Adam woke up very early and he was very uncomfortable. Even Pocoyo could not make him quiet. His body was very hot. At 7am, I decided to give him a bath to reduce the temperature as tepid sponge didn't seem to work.

Later in the morning, I brought him to the clinic. Our favourite Dr Nik Suzet was on leave and a locum was there instead. He asked me many questions and was surprised to know that I had done all the things I should have done. Duh! Parents do read ok. As Adam's temperature was more than 39c, he gave a rectal supp to Adam. This doctor is quite young. He didn't seem to be experienced enough in handling children. Never before had Adam screamed and cried as much as he did this morning. The locum didn't seem to know what was wrong with Adam since he did not have any cough, runny nose or ear inflammation. So, he referred Adam to the specialist for blood test.

cranky Adam waiting for the doctor

I was worried it could be something  serious like dengue so I called my maid and asked her to pack Adam's stuff. I dropped by to pick up the bag and went straight to KPJ Selangor to see Dr Ling. I was prepared for any possibilities because I know human don't just have a fever without any reason. From my little knowledge, I know that when our immune system is fighting with virus or bacteria or whatever, our body temperature will increase at the same time. And 3 days of high fever was not a good sign.

Dr Ling was as nice as ever. He was very gentle with Adam and Adam did not even cry when he tried to look into Adam's ears to rule out ear infection. When he checked Adam's throat, he told me not to worry as Adam just had some tonsil infection. He prescribed an antibiotic and gave paracetamol to reduce Adam's fever. It was such a relief. I know tonsillitis is still a serious illness but it is much less worrying than dengue.

So, in conclusion, these are the symptoms and what you can do to take care of your child with tonsillitis..

• High fever for no apparent reason that lasts more than 2 days even after you continously give him/her paracetamol every 4 hours. Though Adam did not have runny nose or cough, sometimes tonsilitise come with cold as well.
• Foul smell breath that smells like someone did not floss his/her teeth
• Less appetite or no appetite at all due to the swollen tonsil.. It's ok if he/she refused to eat just make sure he/she has enough of milk as substitute.. According to Dr Ling, try to feed the child with small portion but more frequent than usual.
• Wakes up in the middle of the night and cranky because he/she is uncomfortable
• Snoring in sleep - sounds like something is blocking his/her breathing due to the swollen tonsil. So, don't try to adjust his/her sleeping position because it won't go away and you'll end up just disturbing your child's sleep (that's what I have been doing the past few days before I knew Adam's tonsil is swelling)
• Enlarged gland at the back of his neck that signs an infection is occurring somewhere nearby.
• If you can get your child to open his/her mouth, with a penlight, examine for redness around the edges, white spots and swelling of the tonsils or the uvula as seen in the picture below..

picture googled :)

If you need to know more, you can refer to these pages:

• Baby Center
• netdoctor
• wikipedia
• Dr Greene
• Child Health Australia

The information given are almost similar in all the pages. If you are still unsure, just bring your child to see your family doctor. They know better. Take care!

Kids and TV

What do you think of allowing kids to watch TV when they were still young? Personally, I think we should allow kids to watch TV but moderately of course! Apart from that, we also have to monitor the types of shows they watch.

I let Adam watch TV since he was 2 months old. I don't know if he could understand the show or not but he seems to enjoy it very much. He especially loved Dibo the Gift Dragon and My Friends Tigger and Pooh.. His eyes would be glued to the TV while his hands and feet wailing as if imitating the characters movement. Sometimes he even made noise as if he was interacting with the cartoon characters.

I found cartoon shows nowadays are more educational and would benefit them in the long run. Shows like Little Einstein, Word World and Special Agent OSO taught not only the kids but parents too :p This is so different from the cartoon from our days like Bugs Bunny, Road Runner where it all revolves around playing tricks and killing each other which of course without us realizing it, translates to violence.

Two of my cousins speak fluent English just by watching the cartoon shows. Their ranges of vocabs are even larger than mine. When I was their age (maybe till today), I am sure my English was not as good. Considering I may only afford to send my kids to the public school where the quality of the English teachers are doubtful (you should read some of the English teachers' blogs that I have read), I need to prepare my kids with good English foundation before they go to school. Some friends were making fun of me when I speak mostly English with my son saying we are in Malaysia and not in England. That's the point! If we are in England where everybody speaks English, I would speak Malay to my son.. As we are in Malaysia, I am sure soon enough he will be able to catch up on his Malay even with Terengganu slang..

Apart from shows on Playhouse Disney, I also bought alot of educational DVDs for my son. He could dance and jump while learning to talk. He could improve his motor skills and exercise at the same time. Of course I don't let him watch TV all day long.. There are times I would read his books to him and play other toys with him. Limit should be set since they were young so they would know that there alot of other interesting things besides the TV.

Personally, I do not approve Astro Ceria. I found the shows sometimes are not child appropriate. I have discussed about this with one of my friend and she shared how her 2 or 3 year old nephew said to his grandmother "nenek ni macam ibu tirilah" when she scold him. He learned it from watching Hikayat Putera Shahzan where they potrays stepmothers as the angry creature who would scold kids for no reason. This should not be in the mind of 2 or 3 years old. Apart from that, I found the voice over for some of the cartoons that were translated into Malay are very boring. They use adult's voice for kids characters. So not appropriate!

As parents, we are the one responsible to mould child and get the best out of them. If you believe kids should not watch TV at all or you think Astro Ceria is the best channel in the world, so be it. Only you know your kids and only you know what is best for them :)

Cheers!

tepid sponge

As new parents, one of the most common advice we receive is to tepid sponge your kid if the fever is too high. But what is tepid sponge?


Tepid means lukewarm. Maknanya air yang digunakan hendaklah suam-suam kuku. Bukannya terlalu panas atau terlalu sejuk. Senang cakap, suhu dia macam air suam yang kita minum. Sebab kalau air paip kadang-kadang mungkin terlalu sejuk atau di hari yang panas mungkin airnya agak panas. Menurut ehow.com, suhu yang sesuai adalah di antara 27 hingga 37 darjah celcius.


Sponge ni pulak tak semestinya sponge yang macam nie..


Sponge itu tidaklah perlu terlalu ceria kerana ia mungkin boleh menakutkan anak kita yang sedang demam itu. Jika di rumah anda cuma ada sponge yang digunakan untuk membasuh pinggan, jangan risau kerana kain turut boleh digunakan sebagai pengganti sponge. Mengikut pengalaman saya, face towel adalah kain yang paling sesuai kerana saiznya yang kecil dan air mudah meresap. Tapi kalau nak pakai towel mandi pun tak ada masalah cuma leceh sikitlah sebab nanti bila dah celup dalam air, basah dia akan spread ke seluruh towel dan mungkin akan membasahkan tilam anda.
Setelah anda sudah faham apa makna tepid sponge, marilah kita belajar cara-cara untuk tepid sponge.

1. Mulakan dengan mengambil suhu badan anak anda sebelum proses ini dimulakan.
2. Sediakan air suam (sila refer maksud tepid di atas) di dalam bekas yang kecil seperti gayung, besen atau mangkuk. Air ni tak perlu banyak sangat nanti senang tumpah. Agak-agak dalam 1/3 bekas cukuplah.
3. Sediakan sponge atau towel seperti yang telah diterangkan di atas.
4. Buka baju anak anda. Kalau tinggal pampers sahaja pun tak apa kerana ia akan mempermudahkan lagi kerja anda.
5. Celupkan sponge/kain di (3) ke dalam air di (2). Perahkan air berlebihan supaya air tak menitik dari sponge/kain anda dan seterusnya membasahkan tilam anda.
6. Lapkan kain yang basah itu ke seluruh badan anak anda. Tak tau dari mana nak dimulakan? Mana-mana pun boleh. Yang penting area yang selalu panas seperti dahi, ketiak dan groin area. Lakukan selama 20 hingga 30 minit dan ulang jika perlu. Kalau selepas 10 minit suhu badan anak anda sudah turun, terpulang kepada anda samada hendak meneruskan atau tidak.
7. Bolehlah diteruskan proses mengelap di seluruh badan termasuk your child's back and buttock. Masa yang diperlukan adalah di antara 5 hingga 10 minit. Oh, perlu diingatkan, selalunya proses ini tidak melibatkan bahagian perut dan dada. Takut nanti kena pneumonia pulak. (Er, boleh ke? Ni my mom cakap :p)
8. Seterusnya, pakaikan anak anda dengan pakaian yang nipis dan tidak panas seperti singlet. Seluar adalah optional. Selalunya saya cuma pakaikan rompers yang sleeveless untuk anak saya. Menurut ibu saya, dada anak haruslah ditutup supaya tidak mengundang sakit lain seperti batuk dan selsema pula.
9. Jangan lupa ambil suhu badan anak anda. Sekiranya suhu semakin tinggi disebalik usaha anda, sila bawa anak anda ke hospital dengan segera!

Mungkin ada yang bertanya pada suhu berapakah tepid sponge ini boleh dilakukan? Kalau sayalah, ini saya, bukan nasihat doktor ye, apabila suhu badan anak saya mencecah 38 darjah celcius, saya akan memulakan proses ini. Sekiranya suhu badannya tidak turun dan terus naik, saya menyerahkan kepada mereka yang pakar dengan menghantar anak saya ke hospital.
Mungkin ada pula yang bertanya pada suhu berapakah patut dihantar anak ke hospital? Pada saya, jika setelah ditepid sponge suhu anak anda tidak menurun, silalah bertindak dengan segera. Contohnya, anda mulakan tepid sponge pada suhu 40.4 darjah celcius setelah memberi rectal suppositaries dan setelah itu suhu badannya semakin menurun maka mungkin tidak perlu ke hospital. Tetapi jika anda tidak mempunyai ubat di rumah, saya selalunya membawa anak saya ke hospital apabila suhunya mencecah 39 darjah celcius.
Harap maklum, saya bukanlah seorang pakar perubatan. Juga bukan bidan, bomoh atau dukun. Kesemua yang saya tulis di atas hanyalah menurut pengalaman dan juga sedikit bacaan saya. Yang penting, ikutlah gerak hati anda. Kalau 37 darjah celcius nak bawak pergi e&e terus pun tak ada masalah. Sebab kadang-kadang as parents, kita akan lebih tahu mengenai anak kita.
Sekian pelajaran kita untuk hari ini. Terima kasih.

*Tips Tambahan*
Cool room and kain tu tekap lama-lama sampai kain tu warm.. owh, perut dan dada pun boleh! ada-ada saje petua ibu saya :) thanks Marliza!