Today both Ethan and Hannah got ready to go to school.  Ethan is in Kindergarten 2 this year and Hannah is starting off in Playgroup level.  They had both been looking forward to this day for months, and Ethan had been planning with his sister on how she should wait for him after dismissal, how he would hold her hand and take her to her class, etc.  The night before, Ethan was too excited to fall asleep, and I believe he only slept at around midnight.

It was a miracle we managed to get ready and left the house at about 8:15a.m. this morning.

Then again, miracles happen when kids cooperate, wouldn’t you agree?

So anyway, we arrived in school and we found out the kids’ new class names.  Ethan very independently walked up the stairs to his new K2 class and started playing with his friends again.

As for Hannah, since it is her first time in school, there is an orientation program that lasts till the end of next week, where the parent is allowed to accompany the child in class to sort of ease the process of being in school, away from the parent.  This is a very important step to alleviate separation anxiety where possible, and during this period, Hannah’s class will only run for 2 hours a day.

Well, she seemed okay today, and was willing to sit on her own listening to stories and doing her art and crafts.  She was also very happy and enjoyed herself while playing in the playground.  Of course, it certainly helped that she had already been going to this same school for her once-a-week parent-toddler class the previous year and her teacher was the same one she had.

Lunch, consisting of meesuah soup, was served at about 11:30a.m., and Hannah readily finished the entire bowl.  Afterward she even had a few slices of apples.

After her class had dismissed, we waited a few minutes for Ethan’s class to end and went for lunch.

In the late afternoon, Hannah fell asleep and took a very LONG afternoon nap.  Must have been tired from all that running around in school!

Another day beckons tomorrow!

So I explained to him that it was a charity drive MPH bookstore did every year during Christmas where they would put up names of kids who were in orphanages or who were physically- or mentally-challenged, and the customers in MPH are invited to participate in this charity drive by choosing a child’s card from the Christmas tree and then purchasing a gift from MPH to present to the child.  MPH would then wrap the gift up and place it under the tree and present it to the child for Christmas.  I told him that it would make the kid(s) very happy indeed to get presents.

Ethan was very intrigued and decided immediately that he wanted to do it.  Pete and I choose a present each year for a child, but this year, we decided to give the honor to Ethan.

So he chose a card from the tree, and we helped him decide on an appropriate gift for the child he chose.  Then he wrote a message to the child and signed off, “Love, Ethan”.

I thought that was very sweet of him and I am so proud of my big boy with an EXTRA BIG heart.

Turns out we did see all of the above at the Barney’s Space Adventures show, held at Plenary Hall, KLCC last weekend…well, save for Mother Goose and the kids though.  Mother Goose did not make an appearance because I suppose she doesn’t take too kindly to anything “outer space”y, and as for the kids, well,…they were replaced by some singers and dancers who looked quite like adults to me.

Hannah was in total awe when Barney and his friends appeared on stage, so awestruck was she that she could hardly sing and dance, and could only watch in amazement.  During the 20-minute intermission in the middle of the 90-minute performance, she was visibly upset for a while, asking me, “Where’s Barney, Mommy?”

And when I told her Barney and his friends had to make their way to the perfectly purple castle and the journey would take them 20 minutes, she wailed, “Nooo…:(”

Her brother Ethan, on the other hand, was having the time of his life, singing and dancing and clapping to almost every song during the performance.

In fact, Daddy looked more excited to watch Barney than he was when we went to watch Cats some years ago.

It was an enjoyable show, and fun-packed with great songs the kids enjoyed.  I might add that the seats were really comfortable too, and the sound system was superb.  There were some people who showed their true Malaysian kiasu colors by moving from cheaper seats at the back to the front more expensive seats, since the hall wasn’t full…ah, but that’s a story for another day.

We had a great family time together watching Barney, and if that wasn’t enough, later that night, we celebrated cousin Caitlynn’s birthday at Friday’s at Alamanda too!

Today marks the completion of a 6-day antibiotic course for Hannah.  She had been taking Cefaclor, a yellowish liquid form of antibiotics, which I suspect tastes a little lemony.

Prior to her antibiotic course, I was in great distress last week when Hannah suddenly developed extremely high fever.  On Monday morning, she woke up with a low-grade fever of 37.5ºC, which shot up to 39.9ºC at lunch time.  We brought the fever down with some PCM, but it went up again at dinnertime, and I decided to give her Bufren.  At that time, her fever was 40.1ºC, and I was going out of my mind.

I tried to remain as calm as I could, and called the doctor, who said we could continue sponging and monitoring her condition first.  The hospital’s pediatrician on duty was not Hannah’s usual doctor, and I preferred to wait till morning.  It was a very worrying situation because at that time, Pete was away on a business trip overseas, but thankfully his parents were staying with us.  Another worrying factor was that besides the immensely high fever, there were no other symptoms like sore throat, cough, earache…

Anyway, we got through the night and I brought her to the doctor early the next morning.  Her fever was registered at 39+ºC at the clinic, and after she was given a dose of PCM, we were sent to the pediatric ward immediately for sponging.

Although we did some sponging of our own at home, I learnt the correct method of sponging a child, and here are some pointers to note:

• Strip child completely, but diapers and undies can be left on.
• Using lukewarm/tepid water (NOT cold, NOT warm), wet some towels and when slightly dripping place towels on child’s body.  I used traditional nappies to sponge at home, because I find that they are lightweight enough, yet can hold sufficient water for the purpose.
• Leave the towels on the child for some time, and repeat where necessary.
• Wipe dry when sponging is completed.
• Temperature should drop about 10-15 minutes after sponging.

Because of her high fever (and no other symptoms), Hannah had to take a blood test to rule out dengue.  We went home after that, but because her fever was still high, I gave her another dose of Bufren (Bufren is not to be administered if a patient is suffering from dengue).  She didn’t mind the Bufren because it was orange-flavored.

Bufren brought her fever down somewhat, and when I called the doc for her blood test results, it was negative for dengue (thank God), so that only meant and indicated that Hannah was suffering from a bacterial (and NOT viral) fever and infection, which meant she needed a course of antibiotics.

Because she was in a lot of pain and suffering, I had to sometimes overlap her dosage of PCM and Bufren (yes, I had also just learnt that we can do that if necessary), and continued with sponging whenever she allowed me to.

After a dose of the Cefaclor antibiotics, her fever subsided to around 38+ºC and throughout that night, I made sure it did not go above 38.2ºC.  In the morning, Hannah woke up with a smile and when I took her temperature, it was 36.9ºC !

“I don’t have fever anymore, Mommy?” she asked.

No you don’t, baby…and I am so glad to have you back to your usual cheerful, cheeky and adorable self.  Her appetite is improving now and I’m so very pleased.

Ethan, who started from the crib, and moved to the cot and then to our bed and then to the mattress on the floor, had been indicating that he is all ready to move out to his own room, on the condition that the bedsheet is a Cars bedsheet.  You see, he currently has a Cars bedsheet, but it’s on a single mattress.  We figured it’s time we moved our little big man to his own room with his own bed, and currently our only available option is our 2nd bedroom which has a queen-sized bed.  So we had to get a Cars Queen-sized bedsheet set.

Hannah, on the other hand, has been wanting to sleep on her brother’s single mattress for the longest time, and has requested for a Barney bedsheet.

Coincidentally, we finally found the Cars bedsheet (in Queen size) last weekend, so we got it for Ethan and he was very excited when I washed it clean and laid it out on the bed for him.  He happily said goodbye to our room and moved to his new room with his new bedsheet.

The plan was for Ethan to sleep in the other room and for Hannah to move to the single mattress in our room, as a form of gradual transition.  But what we hadn’t expected was when Hannah requested to sleep on the single mattress in Ethan’s room too.  She wanted to be with her brother, apparently.

That’s not all.

She asked me to LEAVE the room and said that she could sleep by herself.

On the first night, I sat at the foot of her mattress till she fell asleep.  On the second night, she asked me to leave the room.  On the third night, she wanted to lie down with me.   But now most of the nights, she can fall asleep on her own.

I was still a little apprehensive if she would be able to sleep on her own, so since Ethan and Hannah moved out, we have left both the room doors open, and on almost every night, Hannah has either wandered back into our bed in our room, or she has cried and I’ve carried her into our bed.

I say “almost every night” because last night was the very FIRST night that she slept through in the room with Ethan.  I woke up in the early hours of the morning and discovered that she wasn’t by my side.  When I checked on her, she was fast asleep, albeit she had rotated 180º!!

That’s a HUGE improvement and we are so proud of both Ethan and Hannah for making this transition.  Shows that they are growing up in leaps and bounds…

…but why does our room feel kinda empty now?

For weeks and months, Ethan had been telling me all about his concert practices in school.  Initially he would show me some of his dance steps, but as the date of the concert drew nearer, he told me he was not going to reveal anymore, because it is supposed to be a surprise.

His school’s annual concert has always been a grand affair, and this year the concert, which was entitled “The Broadway Kids - In Search of Happiness”, promised to be a truly enjoyable one, because I am a big fan of Broadway.  The school’s annual concert is performed by all the kids from K1 and K2, and is even grander than the wee concert.  Typically the K2 kids would play the main roles and the K1 kids will be supporting as dancers, but nevertheless, I was very excited.

Check out the one of the many lovely backdrops used as the concert props.

As the date drew nearer, Ethan would grow more and more excited.  I gave him extra vitamins every day to prepare for the concert.  They had concert camps and staybacks, full-dressed rehearsals complete with makeup and photo sessions too, and when the day finally came, we dropped Ethan off at Dewan Budaya in USM at 1:00p.m. and quickly went off for lunch before coming back at 2:00p.m. to get ready for the concert at 3:00p.m.

I’d extended invitations to our close relatives and family members, but only my Mom could make it.  Ethan was thrilled.  And his sister was equally excited to watch her brother perform live onstage!

Although we weren’t allowed to take any videos during the concert, I did see some parents ignoring the request.  I didn’t take any videos though, but the full video will be made available to us soon by the official videographer.

The show was very enjoyable and it was so much fun to see Ethan out there having fun (I’d have to say the makeup was a tad garish though, but that’s concert performance makeup for ya).  All the songs were taken from famous Broadway musicals, either in their original English forms, or translated to Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia, all with the kids voicing and singing the words.

Ethan’s item was a very lively and well-choreographed dance done to the song The Other Generation from The Flower Drum Song.  In addition, he also made an appearance in the Concert Finale, singing the theme song: Happiness.

Ethan was very happy and relieved when it all ended well, and that night, he slept ever so soundly!  (I’m not surprised!!)

I’m looking forward to next year’s concert excitedly when my boy will be contributing more

In his young age, Ethan just *may* have grasp the difficult concept of faith in God.

While he was playing with Daddy a few days ago, I overheard this verbal exchange between them.

Daddy: Haha, I’m gonna tickle you!
Ethan: Noooooooo!!!! (climbs on top of Daddy and tries to wrestle him)
Daddy: Ethan, Daddy’s gonna get you soon!
Ethan: I’m not afraid!  God will help me!

Spoken confidently with true conviction.  Ain’t he a gem?

I was clearing up some of the kids’ stuff and books last weekend and I found this little notebook that belongs to Ethan.  In it, I found a message that Ethan wrote early this year.

Just in case the message is hard to decipher, it says, “Dearest Mommy, Sorry Hannah accident(ally) drop(ped) 28 Super Dominoes.  Please do not bring me and Hannah to hospital.”

Actually, all I said was, “Uh-oh…Hannah, did you drop those dominoes?  Please be careful, okay?  If you drop those dominoes, you might slip on them and hurt yourself.  Then I’d have to bring you to the hospital.”

Hannah didn’t know how to apologize then, but Ethan took the initiative as a big brother to apologize on her behalf.  Doesn’t he have a BIG heart?

Lately, my two kids have sometimes been involved in sibling squabbles.  Most of the time, they will be playing happily together, but sometimes, the inevitable happens.  He would be playing with something and he wouldn’t allow her to *destroy* what he created.  She snatches from him.  Or sometimes Ethan asks Hannah to play with him, but she doesn’t want to.

Little things like that, ya know.  Small to us, but a big deal to kids.

Well, anyway, we try to get Hannah to apologize to Ethan, and she would say, “I’m sorry Ethan” or “I love you Ethan.”  And we’d ask her to add, “Please forgive me, Ethan.”

And then they’d hug.  (awwwwwww)

The other day, Ethan was engrossed in reading something and his sister wanted to show him something she had drawn.  He impulsively crumpled her paper, and she came running to report to me, “Mommy, Ethan crumpled my paper!” , while pouting.

And then later, Ethan asked me for a pencil and said he wanted to write a message to Hannah.  This is what he wrote:

Makes me feel all emotional inside when I see such caring behavior from someone so young.

Yesterday, I decided to introduce paint-stamping to the kids, using vegetables.  Thanks to my friend’s blog, it had evoked many happy memories of my childhood.  I remember as a child, I used to bring lady’s fingers and lotus root to school for art projects and such, and I remember having a good time doing it.

So as I prepared the items, I explained to Ethan and Hannah how vegetables can look pretty too, and then I demonstrated how to make the paint.  It was actually edible paint, as I used corn syrup and dropped some food coloring into it.  The kids thought it was simply magical

They mixed the colors and made stamps of different colors, patterns and sizes.  They filled up that one piece of mahjong paper with so much color, you’d just had to smile.

And they were so pleased to show Daddy their masterpiece when he came home…it’s still on our balcony, by the way

We’re all used to hearing the Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe chant, albeit some in different versions from the rest.  Do you wanna know how my kids do it?

Here’s Ethan giving a demo:

And here’s Hannah proving yet again that the power of sibling influence is really strong…

Just for the record, here’s what they were saying:

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
Catch a tiger by the toe
If it wiggles, let it go!
Mmm mmm mmm…Buffalo..
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, MOE!