My niece and nephew were glued to the TV pretty much all the time at their grandpa’s house during their Chinese New Year break. They’ve got DVDs of Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Tom and Jerry to Doraemon, Spongebob Squarepants and literally any cartoon stuff I’ve ever heard of. Except one, Donkey Ollie, which they told me their mom got it for free from church. I wondered how it’s legal for their church to make copies and pass cartoons to the masses.
Three weeks ago, some rashes started to show on my baby Clarisse’s cheeks and around the mouth. I took her to see her paediatrician. She told me it is milk rash and prescribed a mild steroid cream hydrocortisone for baby Clarisse. However, I declined the prescription as I do not wish to apply anything that has steroids on her skin especially near her mouth. Wouldn’t want her accidently swallow some steroids, no matter how miniscule the amount. Therefore, we went home without any prescription medicine.
A few days earlier, my neighbour suggested Hazeline snow (the original one). She applied it to her baby’s face milk rash and found it to be an effective remedy. I don’t know how effective is it because I haven’t try it out.
What I did try is this. It’s an advice from a good friend of mine. I regularly wiped my baby’s face with chinese tea and within days, my baby’s milk rash/salive rash subsided. Much better than using steroids if you ask me.
I’d brew a cup of chinese tea every moring and use it to wipe her face after feeding session or when there’s saliva around her mouth. It might take several days for the rashes to fade away.
Life changed since we had baby Clarisse. Both of us do not enjoy the freedom, especially financial wise, we once had when we were just married. Before I got pregnant, we could just spend our money without thinking about it. We could just go for an expensive meal or drive outstation to do some shopping. After I got pregnant, our expenses increased tremendously. Fortunately, money wise, we are still ok. But now every single cent I spend, I would consider twice before buying anything. With prices of essential items on the rise, it’s really important to plan ahead and set a family budget. I’ve been putting off gettng a proper budget software to do our family’s budgeting for a long time. But it’s high time I get down to it, note down what we’re actually spending every month and take a good hard look at where our money might be leaking.
My baby Clarisse received a few more story books yesterday. They are hand-me-downs from my sister’s children. Looks to be suitable for one or two year old toddlers so I guess I’ll be keeping them until baby Clarisse is matured enough to appreciate them.
Thanks to family and friends, I now have roughly thirty hand-me-down story books. Enough different bed-time stories to last an entire month. Most of these story books though are only suitable when baby Clarisse is older. Probably I’ll start reading them to her when she’s one. Right now, she seems more interested in big books with pretty colours, big pictures and big words.
No matter how many teethers are in the crib, baby Clarisse has a habit of chewing the rails instead. Today, my husband and I were out nearly the entire day. When we came home, my father-in-law painted baby Clarisse’s whole crib with wood varnish! He said it looks much better now with a darker and reddish hue. I was rather shocked he did it without telling us beforehand. Most likely, I would tell him to shop around and look for wood finishing coats made by non-toxic materials and proven to be safe for children. Instead, he carelessly used that remaining tin of varnish in the garage. Left-over wood finishing coat he used on his vehicles wood dash kits months ago. Needless to say, I am fuming! Staring at my baby’s crib wondering what I should do now.
Do you search your child’s schoolbag? Run through his drawers? Or monitor his computer usage trails?
One of the more difficult stages of parent/child relationships occur during the teenage period. Boundaries as to where your teenager’s privacy should be respected is such a tough thing to do. As children grows, they’ll start to assert independence. They’ll want more time privately by themselves. They’ll want to make decisions independently.
For new mothers who breastfeed their babies, here is a video clip giving out some tips on breastfeeding by 2 expects. I found it quite useful for beginner mothers who wish to give their babies a healthy start in life through breastfeeding.
Today is another reminder how important mortgage life insurance can be when you owe a mortgage loan from a financial institution. It is a good thing for financial institutes to make compulsary for the borrower to take up mortgage life insurance before they approve their housing loan but too bad this rule does not apply 20 years ago.
My cousin sister come home during the Chinese New Year and stayed with us for a couple of days. She brought along her baby pet dog. This is the first time baby Clarisse had the opportunity to get close to a pet dog and she loved every minute of it. Well, maybe not the very first time we show her a pet animal but previously she didn’t really respond to them. What she loved most was feeding the dog. She would grab a handful of from the dog supplies bag, put her hand forward and have it licked away. Guaranteed to put a smile on her face every single time. Too bad, I don’t plan on getting a pet dog for her when she’s older ;P. Good thing there’s always Pet Wonderland or petting zoo around for her.
If I get a penny everytime someone asks why I do not hire a foreign maid to look after my baby so I could get back to work. Well you get the idea. And this is one of the many reasons why I am always worried letting some stranger taking care of my baby without family supervision. Watch this video clip showing an Indonesian maid was caught on CCTV hitting, kicking and violently shaking a two-month-old baby boy by his Singaporean parents.
