Just yesterday, he’s making it even tougher to bathe him. He doesn’t even want to sit! He kept wanting to stand up. He’d cry and struggle whenever I try to press him down to sit. I can’t bathe him with one hand constantly holding him as he can’t stand on his own yet.

The struggle doesn’t end in the bathroom. It resumes when I try to cloth him. He’d wriggle left and right when I try to button up his shirt. Legs kicking always when I try to put his pants on. He’s so impatient to turn and crawl away. Most times, not even toys can keep his attention long enough to stay still and let me finish clothing him.

He’s nine and a half months now. I dread to imagine how naughty he’d be at one.

Baby Edward is already putting his teeth to (not-so) good use. Just yesterday, he managed to use those beaver-like teeth scrape his baby biscuit thin enough to break it into chunks. He tried to swallow one large chunk of baby biscuit and nearly choked him. Luckily the chunk was too big for him to swallow so I managed to pull it out of his mouth with my finger. No more biscuits for him from now on, I’m afraid.

PAGE is fighting a noble cause. As a parent of two toddlers, I am very worried about their future in education. I was overjoyed when the education ministry decided to use English for Maths and Science. But the joy was shortlived.

The ones that are celebrating now are those who argue English-illiterate students should not be left behind in these two core subjects. That the government did the considerate thing looking into the welfare of such students.

While I’m clearly on the other side of the fence, I admit they do have a point. It’s a struggle for kids who spoke solely in their native language throughout their upbringing into an alien language for teaching.

IMO, the best compromise is to use English for Science and Maths in secondary school. These two subjects is not English literature. If by Form 1, after six years of primary school, students are finding it tough to digest the subjects in simple English, then there is something alarmingly wrong in our education system of teaching English.

I fully support what PAGE fights for. I can easily get hundreds of like-minded friends and family members. We are so eager to see that our children gets better education, if today’s government deny us that, let the government itself be changed.

Let’s show PAGE the support it deserves!

Additional links:

Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) at Blogspot.com – before the new official site (http://www.pageformalaysia.org) was launched.

http://www.petitiononline.com/magp13/petition.html – an online petition to maintain teaching and learning Maths and Science (PPSMI) in English.

Contact PAGE:

PAGE Malaysia
24-2, Medan Setia 2
Plaza Damansara
Damansara Heights
50490 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-20925626
Fax: 03-20931241

That’s the normal type of BHS where the doctor make sure nothing’s wrong with the baby’s lungs and health. And when BHS is triggered by crying. Once the baby passes out, he would breath normally again and regain consciousness within a short time. And after a minute or two, he would appear to be his normal bubbly self again.

So that’s what baby Edward’s doctor told me when I took him along on Clarisse’s scheduled second dose of flu jab.

The first time baby Edward nearly passed out was one month ago when my husband was carrying him. He cried so intensely he couldn’t gasp for air in nearly 15 to 20 seconds. When he manage to do so, his eyes began to close and appear to be losing consciousness. It freaked us out. Luckily he came out of it within 30 seconds. As if nothing has happened.

Two weeks later, baby Edward’s separation anxiety kicked into full gear. Whenever I walked out of sight – to the kitchen to take something, to pee, to bathe, anything – baby Edward starts crying. And a few times he cried so badly, he nearly pass out. That period went on for about two weeks.

I noticed in the past few days, his separation anxiety isn’t so bad anymore. Whenever I take a shower, I could now leave him alone in the cot, with daddy’s supervision, and he’ll happily play with his toys. We’re so glad baby Edward is showing signs of moving out of that terrible phase where he’d wail whenever I’m out of his sight.

He has been very cranky and clingy for the past few days. Easily irritated and cries often. He is nearing full recovery from his bout of flu since Tuesday but I doubt that’s what been bothering him.

His bottom pair of two front teeth is about half way out now. Maybe it’s time the upper pair begin cutting through his gums.

Most of the time in the past few days, baby Edward is in a bad mood. And wants me to carry him all the time. Even to the toilet when I have to relieve myself. He is very reluctant to sit all myself too. I’m really fed up with this stage of his growth. I hope he quickly grows out of it. With tons of house chores waiting for me, every minute is just so precious.

Baby Edward got the sniffles from her sister and at 3.30am, he woke up crying incessantly. Most likely due to stuffy nose and discomfort. It took around an hour for him to sleep again.

At 8.30am in the morning, baby Edward’s body felt warm and I immediately check him temperature. Sure enough he was feverish. Daddy’s morning plans had to be postponed to the afternoon as we took baby Edward to the paed. My mom wasn’t free to take care of Clarisse so we had to get her ready to follow us along.

Despite telling her repeated it wasn’t her that is going to see the doctor, Clarisse cried and refused to get out of the car when we reached the hospital. It took daddy a lot of persuading for her to budge.

Baby Edward’s throat was slighty red. The doctor prescribed the usual cocktail of flu medicines – ibuprofen for fever, antihistamine for runny nose and voltaren rectum suppository in case his fever shoots up above 38.5 celcius.

The last time baby Edward needed those kind of medicine was back in January. It was much easier for us to feed him medicine that time. But not now, at 8 months old, he’s very alert and it takes a lot of push and shoving to give him his meds. He starts to cry the moment daddy holds him tightly. And because he’s crying and struggling, he is prone to choking when taking med syrups. These are not pleasant moments as many parents would attest.

It is 2am now. Baby Edward’s temperature is pretty normal for the entire day but we gave him a dose of ibuprofen before he slept an hour ago. His runny nose is still quite bad. Sneezing a lot so we didn’t skip on antihistimine syrup.

Clarisse still has mild runny nose for 3 days now but no fever.

But now, baby Edward has just discovered stunt number two. He is able to pull himself to a standing position. All by himself without help. And you should see the joy in his face once he is standing up looking out of his crib.

I don’t know how long he could remain standing but after a couple of seconds I would lower him back to sitting position. At 8 months old, I don’t think he should be standing that long, but that’s just me.

Once he’s pushed down to either sitting or lying down, baby Edward would start to cry before trying to pull himself up again.

This morning baby Edward was awaken by the sound of the garbage truck passing nearby. I tried to tuck him in again. But Clarisse, perhaps feeling a bit bored downstairs, came upstairs and went to her own room. Quietly. But her anklet sound was enough to arouse baby Edward’s attention. I thought he wanted to continue his sleep but immediately opened his eyes and stare at the door when he heard Clarisse’s anklet. Arms pointing towards it wanting to go out. He refuses to go back to sleep again.