Tiny Steps, Cutest Smiles

Yesterday evening, we were out to the playground as usual. On the way back to the lift, Jae decided to take the stairs. Initially i thought that he would give up after 1 or 2 levels, but he continued on. With 2-3 breaks in between the climb, we made it up 24 floors to our place without needing me to carry him! He didn’t want to go back home but to continue climbing so I had to trick him to go home. Oh gosh, those little legs that always wanted to be carried can actually climb 24 floors! Maybe i should bring him for stairs climbing more often, but not 24 floors though, it might be too exhausting for the little legs, maybe 10 and increase gradually. He surprises me as usual.

Jae doesn’t like oatmeal. I had to find a way to let him eat this healthy stuff. This morning, i made “Raisins Oatmeal Muffins” and i’m really glad that he ate almost 2(mini muffins) of them. Shall share this easy to make and super healthy muffins recipe(adapted from allrecipes.com).

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. In a small bowl, combine milk and oats; let soak for 15 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together egg and oil; stir in oatmeal mixture. In a third bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into wet ingredients, just until combined. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups until cups are 2/3 full.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

The recipe is actually for plain oatmeal muffins, but i added some raisins because i like it.

Finally, no more tears at separation this morning! I think the trick is not to say “bye bye!”, but say “See you later!” and it works. Hope tomorrow will be the same or even better if he gives me a goodbye kiss. These mornings, he looks forward to “get ready” for school. He’ll walk over to the clothes hanger and point to his uniform. Every time, he wants to wear his PE t-shirt, but i had to keep repeating that its for Fridays. Now he understands that he had to wear the usual shirt and did so willingly. I’m so happy for him.

Its difficult to know what exactly he learns in school because every time i asked him, “Jaeden, what did you learn in school today?”, he’ll reply:”一二三，shalala”. This actually belongs to part of his goodbye song in school. One way of finding out is to listen to what he says during the day. I found out that he is learning shapes, because one day he suddenly say point to a triangle and said “长方形”, which is wrong but he said something in mandarin which i didn’t teach him before. He also started singing CNY songs, like “恭喜恭喜，恭喜你啊”. That is so cute! Another one is part of the goodbye routine and it goes “tick tock tick tock tick tock” and Jae will actually show/teach me the actions that go with it. I’m looking forward to listening to his adventures in school

More improvements! No more struggles with putting on his uniform… yeah! In fact, he was the one pestering me to get ready in the morning. The journey to school had been rather peaceful these days too! After school, he wanted to stay in school instead of going home. I’m not sure if he is very tired, but he would throw a huge tantrum on the bus, wiggling/screaming about, saying that he doesn’t want to go home. After we reached home, he insisted on wearing his school uniforms, even wore it for naps. Should i be happy now that he is too eager for school? The only thing that remains is the separation anxiety when i say goodbye to him. I guess the whole going to school drama is ending. Glad that Jae enjoys school.

I got so sick of his tantrums lately, decided to try and give him one nursing a day in the evening after his afternoon nap.

Well, it seemed like things are better now. He doesn’t scream and throw tantrums that often. I guessed the hospital stay, new school and weaning were too stressful for him. But he still bites and hit us when he is angry. Anyway now he is happier and i am happier with that one nursing a day, i felt connected to him again! When he is done with nursing every evening, he’ll say byebye to nehneh. So cute. I think i’ll let him take his own time in weaning this one feed. As long as he keeps to sleeping through the night and taking his long naps.

Today is Day 13 at school for Jaeden. It seemed like he is making lots of progress. There were less protests when i put on his school uniform and he was less whiny on the way to school. He was quiet most of the time when we were on the bus. After we alight, he mentioned that he wanted to go home briefly and was distracted by the bus stop and his usual scenery along the way to school. When we got to the school gate, i put him down and took out his bag. After that, he held onto Ms Valerie’s hand and walk into the gate. He turned back and wanted me to go in together. When i said goodbye, he started to weep a little. The teachers immediately pull him into the school.

Compared to the first week when he cried the moment i put on his uniform and screaming at the school gate, he is so much better now. I’m so proud of my dear boy.

Last night while we were hanging out on the bed before sleep, Jae suddenly cried out in pain! He kept whining and crying out in pain. After asking him several times, he managed to point out that his right leg is in pain. I felt so helpless, didn’t know what to know. Even carrying him doesn’t help. In the end, i put him down on the bed and started massaging his leg, he fell asleep in 5 minutes! About 2 hours later, he woke up in pain again! i had to carry him top comfort him, put him down, massage his legs and he fell asleep again.

After googling, i found these:
* Growing pains
The occasional dull aches called growing pains are very common in children between the ages of 3 and 5 and then again between 8 and 12.

Growing pains are felt most commonly in the legs, especially the front of the thighs, behind the knees, and in the calves. They most often strike in the late afternoon and evening and during the first hours of sleep at night.

or… could it be this? Due to his iron deficiency:

*Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS)
Restless leg syndrome is a common cause of painful legs. The leg pain of restless leg syndrome typically eases with motion of the legs and becomes more noticeable at rest. Restless leg syndrome also features worsening of symptoms during the early evening or later at night. Restless leg syndrome has been associated with pregnancy, obesity, smoking, iron deficiency and anemia, nerve disease, polyneuropathy (which can be associated with hypothyroidism, heavy metal toxicity, toxins, and many other conditions), other hormone disease, such as diabetes, and kidney failure (which can be associated with vitamin and mineral deficiency).

I think will have to continue monitoring, if it happens again, we will have to bring him to the PD. Why do everything happen at the same time? Poor boy..

On 17th January 2010 around 4pm, Jaeden nursed for the last time. He had been breastfed for 2 years 4 months and 20days. Because of his gastro-intestinal infection, whenever i nurse him, he’ll drink too much and end up vomiting. He didn’t want breastmilk in a cup, therefore i had to stop nursing him. Taking this opportunity, i decided to wean him for good. At this moment, i’m still regretting this decision. I miss the closeness, the days when we hug together and nurse.I’m not sure whether its the school, hospital stay or the weaning, Jae had been throwing lots of tantrums, whiny, hitting and biting more often. He is no longer the calm and happy toddler like before. I miss my happy baby. Should i give him one nursing session again? Maybe that will calm him down.

The good thing about this weaning is that he had been sleeping through the night, 9pm to 7.30pm without waking and he had been able to take longer naps in the afternoon. His appetite is better nowadays too! What should i do?

Yesterday, we went out to Sushi Tei to celebrate Jae’s recovery. He loves the Dragon roll and avocado handroll there. He complained of cold when we reached but i didn’t pack any jacket for him, but there was a cloth in my bag in case he wanted to vomit again. Guess what happened:

*sorry for the lousy images, it was taken with my phone*

Sent Jaeden back to school with a heavy heart today. I was feeling really bad because he just had such a tough week and now he needs to start the school battle again. Last week, he had to endure vomiting, diarrhoea, drinking only 30ml of fluid every hour, force fed medicine, inserting pill through the backside and not allowed to nurse as he might drink too much resulting in vomit. He is such a little boy, he doesn’t deserve to suffer all these. Heartache. He had already lost about 2kg in one week. Now he is only about 16.3kg, compared to his previous 18kg.

And since he wasn’t allowed to nurse during that period, i went ahead and wean him. He is currently 52hours breast-free. This made me sad. I’m already missing the time we spent together nursing, that intimate feeling, I’m going to lose it forever. I am still tempted to nurse him when he starts asking for it, but i know i shouldn’t, else he’ll have to go through another tough period of weaning.

Mummy loves you. Stay strong and tough.