February 17th, 2011 | Personal | No comments
Clarisse has got two bad cavities. Last week we had one tooth removed because despite filling the cavity, it is still painful. Our next appointment with her dentist is 23rd Feb but I’m afraid she can’t wait any longer. After her dinner tonight, she complained about toothache and by 10pm she is crying herself to sleep. So I imagine she must be feeling quite a bit of pain in that remaining cavity. I will try to arrange for an appointment as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow. Round 2, here we go.
February 17th, 2011 | Personal | No comments
According to the feng shui, the flying star to be exact, my room is quite badly afflicted. Baby Edward and I sleep in this room. Only two rooms in our house are air conditioned, this is one of them. The other one is occupied by Clarisse and my husband. So it’s impossible for us to move to the third room. We put a lot of metal and wind chimes to suppress the bad chi. I hope it will be enough to see us through the year.
The kitchen area is also afflicted and will be causing major arguments around the house. That could only mean my husband and I will have to be tolerant and not pick fights over little matters. It’s not easy when parenting puts so much pressure and tension on us. We just have to be sure not to let it get between us.
It’s not going to be an easy year ahead. I just know it.
February 15th, 2011 | Personal | No comments
We had dinner at my husband’s classmate house tonight. They have two dogs in the house. Clarisse was particularly excited looking forward to play with a toy poodle, Alvin. She remembers it well the last time she saw the dogs and was delighted knowing we’d be going there tonight.
Alvin jumped and ran around us when we arrived. He is one active dog but Clarisse and baby Edward were not frightened by Alvin. Except one time, when Alvin scratched Clarisse’s leg. She was about to cry but we managed to console her. Edward didn’t flinch at all when Alvin licked his fingers and sniffed him. In fact, he was really happy and excited to be up close to a real dog for the first time.
February 10th, 2011 | Personal | No comments
Clarisse’s dentist appointment turned out more intense than we expected. Dr Thevadass, child dental specialist, inspected her teeth and gave his suggestions.
The first option is we remove the temporary filling and let him try to do a better job. The downside remains Clarisse may struggle throughout the procedure hence preventing him from doing a good job. And after the filling the cavity well, the tooth may not be saved. Clarisse did complain of toothache even during the night and that is a symptom the tooth is too badly affected by the cavity.
The second choice is to have the tooth pulled and Dr Thevadass lean towards this option. We had to make a decision on the spot whether to have him pull Clarisse tooth at that very moment or, if we can’t stand seeing Clarisse go through the pain and ordeal, admit her into the hospital another day for tooth extraction under general anaesthetics. The damage will be around RM2500, just to remove that one single tooth.
Dr Thevadass kindly asked us to talk about it and make a decision while he tends to another patient, a 6yo boy who needs to have his tooth pulled. He told us to stay far away from the clinic as there’ll be some screaming that could give Clarisse a fright. We walked more than 20 metres and we could still hear him scream. To be honest, I think I’m more frightened than Clarisse after the screaming bouts. It made our decision even harder!
After 15mins, we had a good talk and decided to have her tooth pulled out. Dr Thevadass assure us it won’t be a painful process at all. The only time Clarisse feels painful is when she is given an injection to numb the gums. After that, she may be frightened by the weird feeling of numbness around her mouth, her head being held tight with quite a fair bit of force and the sensation of her tooth being pulled out. All this happening while she’s being pinned down, feeling helpless. That will frighten her more than anyting.
The entire procedure took no more than 15 mins from start to finish. Clarisse cried when she is given the injection and when her tooth is being pulled. It pains me a lot watching her tooth pulled for the first time.
February 4th, 2011 | Personal | No comments
It’s the 2nd day of Chinese New Year.
We had lunch with my in-laws. Jacynth, Victor and Delina came along with us. It’s 5pm now and I’m still stuffed. We’re going to have another dinner at a chinese restaurant at 8pm. It’s like family tradition to dine out during CNY. So if you’re on a diet, bummer!
Clarisse is now taking her afternoon nap. She did not sleep well last night complaining of tooth ache. She has very noticeable eye bags and dark circles. We’ll try to make an appointment with the child dental specialist on Monday or the soonest possible. She can’t wait any longer.
Her cousins will be leaving tomorrow morning. Clarisse hate watching her cousins leave. She’d be moody for days. I hope school on Monday would cheer her up a bit. I’d also have to make sure she gets enough sleep on Sunday so that she won’t be tired at school.
February 3rd, 2011 | Personal | No comments
Clarisse woke up crying at 4am in the morning. She complained of tooth pain. This time it was the left side cavity. The right side cavity was filled about a month ago but it wasn’t a good job, admit the dentist, because Clarisse was struggling.
I beat myself up for not taking her to the dentist a lot earlier. Maybe if her cavity wasn’t so big, she wouldn’t feel much pain. Now, Clarisse might be referred to a child dental specialist at the government hospital for further treatment. Where she’d be put under general anaesthetic while the dentist fix her teeth.
So I’ll be taking Clarisse to the dentist this coming Monday. May have to skip school if necessary. I expect Clarisse to put up a struggle again. Then I will request for a letter of reference for an appointment with the child specialist.
This is not how I like the lunar new year to start.
January 27th, 2011 | Personal | No comments
The maid agency whom I hire part-time maids for weekly house cleaning has screwed me up big time. I have gave them a list of dates to send me a maid two-months in advance in anticipation of Chinese New Year. The agency and I made certain changes to the list of dates to compromise on his schedule and maid availability. This was at least one month ago. Imagine my frustration when I called to confirm whether the maid will be coming tomorrow morning and in return asked “Did we arrange for a maid tomorrow?”. I kept my cool and insisted to speak with the manager whom I spoke to when arranging all the dates. He apologised profusely and arranged to have a maid sent here on Saturday instead. This messed up my plans for the weekend but Chinese New Year is near so I can’t afford not to have a helper around to assist us in cleaning up the house. But the agency’s slip up certainly caught me off guard.
January 27th, 2011 | Personal | No comments
Every morning we wake Clarisse up at 7.15am, an hour before school starts. We could’ve wake her up a lot later, say 30 minutes before school starts because we live just 5 minutes drive to her kindergarten. But that’s not the case because she takes a long time to drink her milk and eat breakfast. She’s a very slow eater and takes her own sweet time. She’d be watching cartoons on TV and barely chewing her food or drinking her milk. No matter how much we’ve yelled, caned or threatened to switch off the TV. Unless it’s snacks and junk food, where she’ll polish off in no time and asks for more. Watching her eat is like watching plants grow. It test our patience to the limit. We live 5 minutes away and wake her up an hour before school starts. And still she’ll be late 5 or 10 minutes for school. Unbelievable!
January 27th, 2011 | Personal | No comments
It’s been 3 weeks since Clarisse started to attend kindergarten. Within this 3 week period, she has been sick twice. I’ve been told kids will get sick as soon as they start schooling pretty much guaranteed. How true it is.
Clarisse has just recovered from flu she caught 4 days ago. She started with runny nose on Friday morning and her temperature spiked late in the night. We took her to the doctor on Saturday and was given the usual medicine for fever and runny nose. Her temperature spiked again on Saturday night. We gave her some fever syrup and by Sunday morning she’s back to normal temperature. We decided to have her skip school on Monday if her fever spikes again on Sunday night. Luckily, she was fine. So it was back to school for her on Monday eventhough she still has the sniffles.
I’ve noticed more than a third of her classmates are absent in the past few days. I bet most of them are sick too. One parent I talked to mentioned similar symptoms.
January 19th, 2011 | Personal | No comments
It’s third week of school for Clarisse. Everything seems to be going well. She’s not crying or getting bored with going to school. I hope this goes on forever. To her, the idea of going to school is to have fun and play with her friends. So far the kindergarten is doing a fairly good job at keeping her entertained while learning.
Nearly all the kids have settled in class. Only one or two cry whenever their parents leave but at least they are consolable. Within a minute or two, they stop crying and settle down nicely.
There’s one girl who always pick a fight with classmates, especially Clarisse. And Clarisse is returning the blows, refusing to give in when pushed around. I’m constantly reminding Clarisse to avoid getting in her way. What I’m worried is when these kids get hold of pencils or something sharp and being mean to each other.
