Le Xuan's First Visit to the Dentist!

This was un un unbelievable, I never thought I would need to bring Le Xuan to the dentist due to this reason: Her permanent teeth grew out even before her milk teeth drop!  And she's not even 6 yet!

It all started with her complaining that her bottom set of teeth (at the front) hurt whenever she had her meal.  We all thought that perhaps her milk teeth were turning shaky and going to fall soon, and asked her to be more careful when she ate. But whenever I asked her if the tooth was shaky, she said no .

One day, she requested to eat a banana before she left for school. We could see that she seemed to have great difficulty biting the banana, and suddenly exclaimed that there seemed to be blood on the banana.  So I quickly used a torch to take a close look at her teeth and was astonished to see two tiny permanent teeth that were beginning to grow out behind her milk teeth!

Without any delay, I decided to call the Sunshine Dental to book an appointment for 28 Aug 2015 (Friday). The lady over the phone did sound me out that there might be a need to extract the two milk teeth to prevent overcrowding of the teeth.  Frankly speaking, I was quite stressed and wondered how Le Xuan would react to it.

On the day of the dental visit, Mum and I brought her to the dental clinic, and was pleasantly surprised that it's a child friendly environment.  Le Xuan zoomed immediately to the small playroom where she kept herself busy with the toys while I handled her registration.  When it was time for her turn, the dentist even invited me and mum to go in while she had an interesting conversation with Le Xuan.  The friendly dentist introduced Le Xuan to all her equipments, and obviously Le Xuan was fascinated with the whole system whenever she pressed any buttons or knobs.  There was also a huge TV screen for her to select and watch a movie from a long list of selection provided by the dentist. Le Xuan looked so cute when the dental assistant put on a pair of kids' sunglasses for Le Xuan so as to reduce the glare to her eyes.

I must say that the dentist was really well trained and could handle kids very well.  Even when she gave Le Xuan a jab (long needle!), or when she was using tweezers to extract the teeth (alot of blood!), Le Xuan didn't complain at all! She gave Le Xuan very clear and assuring instructions, and after the whole process, Le Xuan was delighted to be rewarded with 2 cute paper clips from the dentist! Haha and of course she got a reward from me too: A hot fudge sundae from Macdonalds!

I'm sure that Le Xuan's first dental visit didn't deter her from any possible visits again in future. So unlike our generation where most people have phobia visiting dentists who were generally deemed fierce and unkind. In fact, this little girl said she wants to be a dentist in future, LOL.

Week 31 of Pregnancy

Wow, time flies, can't believe I'm into my last trimester already, and 6 more weeks left to full term! *gasp* I can still remember that my first pregnancy 6 years ago was basically very bad morning sickness until I hate the sight of food. This pregnancy's morning sickness was more in control as I had the help of Zheng yi shi. But it hasn't been a breeze either. I was down with sinus infection at the beginning of the pregnancy, followed by bronchitis, and subsequently asthma which also meant lots of medication. There were regular finger and leg cramps, backaches and I'm now having pelvic pain every day. Guess age has really caught up with me. But I'm also thankful that my life is less stressful now that I'm working part time and mum is there to support me like brewing me tonics and cooking nutritious soup, and of course taking care of Le Xuan.

Life will not be the same pretty soon as there'll be lots of impending changes.  Besides the arrival of baby, we'll also be engaging a domestic helper, and moving to our new house at One Canberra. Morever, Le Xuan is going to Primary One next year (the P1 registration saga was an unforgettable one :P) which is also another milestone of her as well as our lives. This is really a challenging year as having baby no. 2 is totally unexpected, especially when dear has just made a career switch this year after being 10 years of civil servant.  Hope that everything will turn out well as we work together as a team. Laogong jiayou! Le Xuan jiayou! Qianshu jiayou!! :)

Emotional Roller Coaster

Oh no, seems to me that I have this sense of fear and insecurity growing inside me again.  This fear that history will repeat itself again when I give birth to Lambie, fear that hubby cannot give me the assurance and support needed, fear that I will sink into depression again, fear that our marriage will turn rocky again, fear that we will quarrel over his parents again, fear that my health will go downhill again, fear that I can't cope with two kids, fear that dear will think i'm neglecting him again.

Since dear decided to make the career switch, I have been trying to be as understanding and supportive as possible, lending him my listening ear every single day, preparing breakfast for him and making herbal tea if he's heaty. It has been very tough for him as he faced difficulty on engaging clients, dealing with the more emotional aspects of people as he has always been a more logical and non chalent person. But I could see that he's trying his best to learn and strive to do better every time.  It hurts to see him so stressed and losing weight over it. As far as possible, I hope to lighten his load by planning most of the stuff for our baby, and also in terms of coordination for house renovation. At one end, I'm looking forward to moving to our new house and welcoming the new baby, but I can't help feeling scared too.

Deep in my heart,  I'm actually hoping that with dear's change in career, he will become more sensitive to other people's needs and feelings. I remember last time when we had an argument after  Le Xuan was born, he said that I should tell him explicitly what I feel and what he can do to help, and that he would not know if i didn't do so. It hurt me a lot as I thought that as my husband and not a stranger, being more sensitive to my needs and taking initiative to do certain things are all acts of love for me and our child, and something that should come from his heart instead of being told to do so.

Questions started popping in my mind: Will dear say he's not being a good son if I say his parents need not come over to our house every single day during confinement as I really need some private space and rest? Will he think he's not a good son again if I say that they can come over to our house for dinner instead of us going out and looking for yummy eateries elsewhere, as I need to wash up the baby at 8pm and breastfeed every other hour? I know dear loves me a lot, and I love him dearly too. But sometimes I really can't help feeling like a second class citizen in front of his family. Oh well, perhaps my pregnancy hormones are working up again, time to move on and be more positive and cool!

Mother's Day 2015

This year, we didn't get to celebrate Mother's Day as a family as Dear has been busy and tired with work, and we had to celebrate with our mums as well.  Nevertheless, I'm surprised and touched with what my dear princess gave me for Mother's Day this year. I received a yellow carnation, a pair of pearl hair clips and also a bracelet nicely wrapped and contained in a box. 

Le Xuan really surprised me with the yellow carnation. At first, she told me that her school teachers were not doing anything with the students for Mother's Day this year and I really believed her! She managed to hide the flower when she got home, and sprang a surprise on me in the study room with the flower. 

As for the bracelet, she made it excitedly almost 2 weeks before Mother's Day! Although I knew she made a bracelet for me, I only got to see the product on Mother's Day as she managed to work with Po Po to wrap the gift nicely immediately after she was done with the bracelet :) 

It was quite a funny episode with regards to the hair clips. She asked if I could buy her a nice hair clip and requested that I bring her downstairs. I agreed but it was funny to see her taking money from her piggy bank and got her wallet ready before we went down. Haha, of course I knew what she had in mind. When we were at the accessory shop, she asked me what I like and said that she wanted to buy me a hair clip for Mother's Day. So I chose this pair of pearl hair clips, and she went make payment at the cashier happily.  My baby has really grown up, and I must say that I'm really blessed to have her as my daughter.  Please continue to grow healthily and happily, Mama loves you!

Papa's 34th birthday

Ooopsy, this is a super overdue post which I should have posted in January!! But better late than never!

This is a very happening year for our family as dear embarked on a new career as a financial planner, and we're going to move to our new house at One Canberra! On top of that, I'm expecting a baby (totally unexpected) which will be due in September *gasp*.  This also explains why I have not been blogging since Jan as I was grappling with morning sickness during the first trimester, and also busy tutoring a larger number of students this year. Fortunately, I do not need to worry too much about Le Xuan as she overcame her fear of going to school which also marked the success of Papa's initiative - The 20 smiley face challenge!!! *applause*

Le Xuan was wondering what to get for Papa's birthday, and I suggested that she could probably get a pencil case for him as Papa would need it for his new job.  Haha, she was so excited about it and I remember her getting money from her piggybank and we went to Popular bookstore to shop for it. In the end, she decided on a blue one and when I asked her why, she said, "Cos Papa likes blue!" After that, she even made a small birthday card (hiding in Porpor's room) and placed it inside the pencil case before asking me to help her wrap it up.  She was so secretive about it as she did not want Papa to know what she bought until his birthday. Oops but she didn't know that I have already let the cat out of the bag :P

I could remember vividly that a few days later, Le Xuan asked Papa what he hopes to get for his birthday. And of course, Papa said that he wish to have a pencil case. When Le Xuan heard that, her face beamed with delight and she quickly covered her mouth and hid herself behind the arm chair, so that Papa didn't see her reaction and got suspicious. It was so funny when she turned to me (still hiding behind the arm chair) and mouthed, "Papa wants to have a pencil case" and giggled. Sooooo cute!! We decided to celebrate Papa's birthday on 25 Jan (slightly earlier) and she was very happy to give Papa his birthday present :)

Happy Papa and Le Xuan with the blue pencil case

As usual, Papa's birthday celebration seemed more like Le Xuan's birthday as we decided to bring Le Xuan to Polliwogs! She had so much fun and of course Papa was happy to see darling enjoying herself, and not forgetting lunch at our favourite Ding Tai Fung after the fun.

Haha, our afternoon fun at Polliwogs and DTF was only round 1. There of course must be round 2 which was couple time! Since it's been a long afternoon of travelling, we decided to have a nice dinner at our favourite heartland mall Causeway Point! LOL. Dear and I had a lovely dinner at Shabu Shabu and it didn't really matter where we were so long as we have each other's company :) I know this year is especially challenging for dear, and I hope to be a supportive and understanding wife and be there for dear always! Jiayou laogong!!! Positivity breeds positivity! *hugz*

20 Smiley Face Challenge!

This is my first post for the new year, and that is the 20 smiley face challenge for Le Xuan as she embarks on her last year in preschool as a Kindergarten 2. (Gasp! P1 next year!)

This great idea was suggested by Papa so as to encourage our dear daughter to smile when she goes to school. It had been a mentally and emotionally draining year 2014, as she cried almost every single day to school.  

The first week of school is over, and we're glad that Le Xuan got 4 smiley faces on her calendar!! Yeah!! She didn't exactly went into school happily, but we're glad that she didn't cry either, haha basically she went in sulkily.  Hopefully things will get better along the way especially since she likes her K2 teacher Rebecca, and her chinese teacher Gao lao shi.  

Le Xuan's achievement so far :) 

Another thing positive is that she's actually not adverse to going for a free trial lesson at MMI next Friday for the English speech and drama class. Hopefully this will help her in her social development, and also make it less draining for her to collect the remaining 16 smiley faces. Fighting!!!!!