Layla’s been asking for ballet lessons and I decided to look for a proper school this time. That’s how we ended up at the Singapore Ballet Academy a few days ago. I didn’t call ahead, and as it turns out, they only take kids who’re past their 4th birthday. There’s even an audition to ascertain if kids are interested and able to follow instruction.

I’m not put off — I wanted “proper” and I guess this is it! At $140 per 3-month term, it’s only about $20 more than what we paid at Jitterbugs. Will be calling them in August.

They’re often beautiful but I find book jackets a bother — we can’t seem to keep them in good condition for long!

Usually I’m pretty heartless and will chuck them without a second thought, but today I thought we could do something different. Read More »

Alf has been warning me to make sure Layla steers clear of sick kids.

After the first year, my policy has been fevers are a no-go, everything else is OK. So I’ve only kept Layla away from other kids when she’s feverish; once she’s been in the clear for 24 hours (without medication), I let her out to play again even if she sneezes a couple of times or has a wet cough.

Now it’s the neighbours kids’ turn — two of them are down with fevers. I found myself in the awkward situation of having to return a child to her home today because I took her temperature and it was 37.8 and probably headed upwards. Subsequently she wailed for 30 minutes and was let out again, along with her sister who’s also sick.

A while later, we all headed down together to help another friend bundle all her stuff and baby into a cab, and I had to resist the urge to physically drag Layla away from the kids. We made a hasty exit once our job was done, so I guess our running away must’ve been quite obvious!

When I got home I decided to read up on some general guidelines on when to keep kids away from one another. As it turns out, kids are most contagious “a day or two before they act sick.” Click here for what the American Academy of Pediatrics has to say, and here for a longer checklist on Babycenter.

For seven days, we’ve had to coax Layla into taking the foulest-smelling medicine she’s been prescribed to date — and almost 10ml at a time at that!

We were out of tricks by Day 2 and we didn’t have many to begin with. The Sunquick didn’t help. Putting it in milk didn’t help. She refused to consider trying the Vitagen version (as suggested by Jayne). She even yelled at me, “Mommy, just make it nice!”

We made threats that I’m not proud of and I hit her once. And by Day 3 I thought, this isn’t working, let’s just get her to drink it straight from a cup and straw, undiluted, and learn the important life lesson that some things are better when you get them over with quickly and move on.

Funny thing is, it worked! Today Layla woke me up by saying, “Mommy, I’m ready to eat my medicine now.” :-)

Layla’s almost done with her course of medication, but if your child’s just starting out on meds and having a tough time, here are some ideas:

• Choose a good time for medicine feeds, e.g. first thing in the morning works great for us, because Layla’s so eager to get us (or rather, me) out of bed that she’ll agree to practically anything. And since the medicine tastes so bad, it’s best consumed before a meal.
• Whenever possible, make sure there’s an audience around to witness the display of bravery. For us, there’s my mum-in-law and the neighbours. Don’t forget the applause and accolades after.
• Announce that there’ll be something fun to look forward to after the medicine. Better still if it’s something fun and new.

We’re a family that’s used to being out and about and it was hard to spend a full week indoors, and worse, not being able to sleep much of it away.

So I spent that time reading. I read Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. After that I headed for Google and the Amazon reviews, hoping to find an army of readers pointing out that life in Afghanistan wasn’t as bad as the author made it out to be.

No such luck. Read More »

We’ve been hanging around kids who’re either sick or recovering from something or other and it’s finally caught up with us, sigh! Layla’s been down with a viral fever since Sunday; we’re at six days and counting. Read More »

Love these old playgrounds. I’d almost forgotten about the sand pits!

A lot of people had to say that to Mariane Pearl after she delivered her son Adam, just months after her husband’s murder. I was particularly surprised — and touched — by these two letters: Read More »

This post is now hosted on MyPlayschool.net. Follow this link to read it!