Bullet's ultrasound scan

I took Bullet for his scan last friday and because he had eaten something he needed to be scanned again so off we went on weds. It is confirmed that he has a small liver, so instead of the laid back weimaraner, he actually was a weim with a small liver and thus less energy. His liver is not functioning to take out the toxins and surgery is recommended as a biopsy will show what type of liver problem he has and how we can treat it. In preparing for the surgery bloods were taken to see his clotting levels, it looks like his liver is also hampering the production of clotting cells and so everyday I need to take him to get a vitamin K shot, if that does not boost his system, they will have standby plasma for the surgery. Poor guy doesn't even want to get into my car as we only go to the vet! Here is a pic of bullet sedated before the second scan.

We have now been without water for 2 days, looks like it will go on for another day, went to fill our 5 liter bottles with water. Have been taking the boys to swim at the gym and then shower there. Although it is quite inconvenient not to have running water, it is not terribly aggravating, reminds me of the time in Malaysia when we have to collect rain water and cold water wipe downs. I think I like no water better than no electricity. I think I must have low expectations of this country and living the way we do is already beyond my expectations?

We are all waiting for the rain. The sky was rumbling on Tueday but did not rain, the plants though are blooming where there are sprinklers, with the rain I think even the dusty roadside will become green.

More pics of fauna. The birds and bees are out, I bought a seed thing to hang out to attract the birds, today I came home to 30 bee's buzzing about the house! We had to smoke them out (use metal pot and scrunch tissue paper, then light, creating a light smoke). The dogs went after the bee's so I had to lock them up. When I told Nate, he said, "oh and the butterflies will come also."

The latest strike for those who want to know is... the automobile parts strike, look like VW, GM and a few other makers will have a hard time delivering cars and may lose orders which leads to layoffs, wonder how this country can continue to function like that? 

Ike has two molars coming out and is doing something new everyday, just last week he was climbing several steps, today he is going down steps. I found him very adept at pointing the TV remote and asked how long the girls keep him in their room, they claim that its only when they need to use the toilet, so I have asked them to take his books there, better that he learns to open a book than to point a remote control!

I found my alternative Chinese supermarket, it is in Rivonia and takes me about 30 mins to get there but they have a larger variety of stuff, including even goji juice (though I had to ask the store owner to stock it). Nate's school semester ends tomorrow with a week break and I thought I would get cracking with his Zulu boy costume for the school performance but one of the mom has just called to say that she can make the costumes for all 4 Zulu boys!

Because why

Now I am not sure if the above phrase is a Singlish one and I have been using it and my son the parrot is using as well or its the natural way a child learns to speak. I hope its the latter and not the former!

Am now so sore from yoga yesterday that I am walking funny, at least michelle joined me and I am not sore alone. We did some strange kundalini meditation involving pointing our index fingers to jupiter and holding up our hands for 11 minutes, wearing my paul frank monkey in meditation t-shirt did not help my meditation. What somewhat saved me is looking thru my third eye (read cross eyed with eyes closed).

Well, the yoga teacher, Tracey is also the yoga teacher for the boys, first lesson today, she promises me that they will be so tired and asleep! But I am quite pleased that they will be receiving the gift of yoga young and will hopefully not be creaky like me, speaking of which, bubbi and porpor, be prepared to yoga when here next!

Today we had parenting session 2, its really nice taking a class together as opposed to just reading and knowing that others have worse kids than you! (haha lets see how many people really read this blog and respond to that one). Today's chapter is called, engaging cooperation.

We began by going thru the ways we normally behave, so here I will confess I often use "threats", must be parenting skills learnt from my parents (who else?), at least I didn't fall into other categories such as blaming and accusing, name calling, commands, lectures, martyrdom statements, sarcastic and prophecy (which makes kids feel doomy).

So apparently, engaging cooperation (1) it is useful to describe the problem, instead of "this room is a mess", one should say "the books need to be put away" and some kids will put away the books. (2) Give information - the milk will go bad if it is not in the fridge, (3) offer a choice - they are more cooperative if they think they have a choice, "do you want the medicine in a spoon or syringe", (4) say it with a word, "jacket" to mean pick up the jacket, this is a very suitable method for me, esp. since I don't like long sentences, the (1) describe the problem can be hard for me. Luckily Nate is 3 and monosylabicity is good, he understands. If that doesn't work, "ahem jackets" work. (5) describe what you feel - I am hungry, lets pack up quickly so we can eat. I like (6) write a note, this works for me too, apparently kids that can't read still like reading notes.

On a slightly different note (no pun intended), if the grandparents (and loren) have gotten to this part, I would encourage you guys to write old fashion notes or letters or sketches to nate and ike, I will read it to them before bedtime (nate seems to dream of the book they last read) and put them into a special scrapbook. As it is now he loves putting the artwork and photo's and reports from school into a scrapbook.

Let's see how Tracey the S&M yoga teacher engages cooperation from the boys, because why, I hope they all feel as sore as me.

Poor Bullet

Here's a pic of nate in the car with brutus, he is feeding brutus some milk. Nate now says he is going to be 4! Today is the last day he is going into the bird park for free. We went and saw the birds, a few of the meercats have babies and they are really cute!

Anyway, poor bullet, I took him to the vet on Friday, I have taken him over the last 3 months to the vet for urine and blood tests and antibiotics and with every test the protein results are not good, we went to get his kidney and liver scanned. I have to take him on weds again as he ate something and his liver is hiding behind the stomach. On friday the scans showed a shrunken liver and some fluids floating around, his system is not taking out the toxins well and not also producing the right ratio of blood cells. The dr thinks its linked to his epilepsy fits.

I had to hold bullets paw while they scanned him. The dr doesn't want to say much till the next scan and maybe a biopsy but liver doesn't bode well and he is not likely to live a long long life, probably shortened, for now he has to be on medication and also special liver dog food.

Nate and Ike's birthday

Nate started celebrating his birthday on Friday, he got to school and his teacher made him a birthday hat, he happily wore that around the whole day. I brought a choc cake to school for him and the kids all had choc cake and sang happy birthday to nate, I also got 2 more cakes for the staff as a thank you for making his days there so happy.

I have met a few parents recently who did not like the school, I guess its quite a personal thing, there are some parents that are really into cleanlinest and just do not like the dust there and I guess the different animal smells!

On saturday nate and ike had their birthday party at a place called tumbleweeds, I managed a few photo's before people started streaming in, there was a jumping castle, a built in trampoline, a nice and cool lhapa area for adults, we were about 40 adults and 20 kids. There was a wildlife demo which was also very good, the kids got to be up close and personal with a small croc, a meercat, a bunny, a large python, a toad, everytime nate was afraid i said I would eat up the animal for him, I think he is going to grow up thinking that mom or the chinese just about eat anything.

I also got that lovely choc cake (that weighs it weight in chocolate), since it was an animal theme I put on animal cookies as decoration as the cake makers would not decorate the cake for me. Here is a pic of Ike's cake. The party favours had a bubble bath animal tied outside and healthy snacks from the nut tree inside. This included, choc raisins (when is choc unhealthy? ok so the raisins are sticky, next year they will be choc wolfberry's!), oven baked corn nibblets, dried papaya and animal shaped gingerbread cookies.

They both got a tonne of present, Nate got books from bubbi, a doll from bubbi and porpor, loren helped name him "brutus". Nate loves taking brutus on walks in the new stroller he got from lucas (a fancy 3 wheeler Maclaren!). On the way he would stop and feed brutus some milk from a bottle and also bring along the dummy. He also changed and fed brutus, maybe next week he would potty train brutus. he got "sarge" and "fillmore" and also a cars watch from the gang. Other presents I have stashed away and over the week he can play with them.

Ike got nice things too, a train with blocks, some of his own books and clothes, now with his growing stash, nate is more willing to share his toys as well. Will take some pics of his new toys in the next days, he has not got a chance to play with all of them yet.

Nate didn't take naps for several days but today I think he was just tired and did nap, which was nice. more pics in next post.

Little Gorilla

I will try and get a picture of this for illustration but Ike is quite the little Gorilla, he has developed a way to hook his little right arm around one's left arm, holds on tight and is able to swing a larger area to look around. Its very much like the National Geographic pictures of a baby gorilla or chimp holding on to mommy.

He has also found that soft area (if one has no biceps) and likes to squeeze it, if no response then he digs his nails into it. So his little game is... squeeze, OW, (big grin) hee hee hee, squeeze, OW, (bigger grin) hee hee hee....

Bubby has got him a toy tricycle for his birthday, it is of course an adult IQ test and has taken me, three broken screw drivers later to build it. Pics soon!

Art Exhibition

Here are some pics of the last art class and mini exhibition, my head is chopped off here... great camera person, the art teacher, luckily she isn't teaching photography! Kai kai's art projects over 10 lessons. He is a bit art-out now. Especially since he also does projects in school (I have a whole folder full, which at least he likes looking thru!). Next week its kiddie yoga.

I once attended a yoga workshop by Duncan Wong, he is of mixed parentage and started yoga really young but also Kung Fu. His clas is quite interesting in that he could meld Kung Fu poses with yoga, he had a really aggressive peaceful (if those two words are possible in the same sentence) state about him.

Today we also started out parenting course, its based off "how to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk", its by two jewish ladies, tho on DVD (filmed in the late 1980s), they already looked like jewsih bubbies. We have a workbook and have to carry out the skills learnt today. So lesson 1 is... try not to deny your childs feelings.

Eg. I hate grandma, a denying adult response is, "no you don't mean that" or Eg. 2, "This is Yucky", the denying response include, "no it isn't, everyone else likes it".

The three key response (with empathy) is (a) oh... hmmm.... I see.... (looks like T and me are already communicating like this), (b) identify the feeling, "oh you hate grandma today", (c) give a child a fantasy if you cannot give him reality, so to this is yucky, " you mean you don't like that special worm juice?" (ok so the last one may need a bit of modification).

Anyway the DVD showed a similar adult situation where we may encounter and the usual "denial" responses that an adult would say to a child and they really sounded patronizing or pity or like an amatuer psychoanalysis or un-needed advice. Apparently questioning is not so good because then it makes a child try to justify their position when they don't have the vocabulary to do so yet.

I have used the technique before this class but it was really interesting to hear other views from moms and the DVD, visual version and now reinforced by homework, vs. falling asleep before finishing a chapter of another parenting book. Stay tuned for free parenting lessons! (usual disclaimers apply).

Nokia Event - Defend Your Street

ok, the first two pic have nothing to do with the title above. One is of the chicken nest in nate's school, a hen has laid a whole bunch of eggs and is often seen "bu dan" there. We are awaiting the chicks tho I suspect the eggs may be dud ones. Apparently there should be alot of chicks and ducklings soon. Also Nde Bushe should have alot of baby springboks as well.

Pic 2 is of Nate at Nde Bushe wearing my sweater. He has consistently been spilling stuff on himself by accident. Since his clothes were wet, he ran around only with his spidy undies, then I remembered that I brought my sweater and folded the sleeves for him, looks like a dress-ish.

The other pics are of the Nokia event, it involves soccer, which didn't really interest me but I took nate, ike and nomsa on sunday with michelle, axel, lucas and isabelle. Nate got his face on TV the day earlier with Loren giving an interview, apparently with a big green caterpillar drippy booger nose. Here he got a spiderman hand painting and a tiger hand. Ike got some balloons painted on his leg and appears not to be freaked out by the strange looking woman. The VIP tent was nice, lots of freebies, a nokia hat, tupperware, bandana (am now sorted for cancer day at school on the 21st) and a blue T-Shirt with NOKIA on it. Nomsa said she will use that as her uniform.

Nate on a Quad bike, I took ike on it, while I steered, he cried, must be the noise from the engine.

Today, we walked on the golf course, while Shelly was busy pulling up Ethan's pants as he did a quick wee, and pistol was chasing the pea hens (he was like a hunter until he started stalking the magpies which swooped down and fought back, then he slinked back quickly to the safety of my legs), Kelly and Helen with Nate, raking the sand, a man runs down in sunglasses saying we can't do that!! boy was he mad and red all over but since we committed many possible violations, we weren't sure which one we were offending. So after 8 months of being here and taking my stroller around, I am told the stroller wheels hurt the turf.... oops.

Seasons go from Winter to Summer here

It was cold and then suddenly quite hot! the heat in mid day now reaches 31 degrees. In the am and pm its quite cool. The daylight hours are getting longer and the govt also talking about doing daylight saving time. Which would be good as Ike is now teasing us with a 6 am wake up but I wonder whether he would do that if the sun starts to come up sooner.

Ike is also taking longer naps as he must be tired from all his shuffling around! Today he did 2 chunks of 2 hours quite nicely, we had to wake him up. Dr. W says by 15 months he would only sleep one nap, I think Nate used to do a 3 hour stretch? I quite liked last friday where he didn't want to nap and so he had to sleep earlier.

Here are some of the flowers in bloom! The purple hanging ones are in nate's school, he seems to always stop and admire them. The small bally curled up ones now burst into yellow pompom like flowers. The first image is of my citronella flowering. The intense purple on the bottom is on a plant that shoot upwards, the leave resemble the "Japanese rose" back in KL, the flowers are like paper. Last month I thought my rose cover had died out so I went to buy little white flowers with a tinge of pink, today I looked at where they were planted and the old cover has sprouted back up! boy will there be a plant war soon. Its like growing right before our eyes.

Ike's graduation

Ike has graduated from Clamber Hell, I mean Clamber Club's tadpole class and will be going to the froglet class in October. Here he is with Jog the Frog and his first certificate, apart from his birth certificate...

Mao mao qong food

Still on the subject of worms, here is the caterpillar, swedish meatball, cucumber, mao mao qong that Lucas' gran made for the art class on tuesday. She should give annabel karmel a run for her money. Next week is the last class and it looks like the kids will take a break from art and try yoga.

On the walk with Nate and his car of course have to come along....

Bullet's vet told me that his liver has signs of trouble, he has been on antibiotics and 2 blood and urine tests. He has also been losing weight, 38 kg in taipei, 35 kg when we moved here and 33 kg now. The vet suggests a scan of his internal organs next week. The cost is way lower than a scan for humans.

Speaking of medical services, apparently the public health system is free but in nomsa's case the antibiotics didn't work and she went back for further Xrays, they lost them and she sat around waiting for 2 days and still did not get to see a dr. Apparently only 2 doctors in the hospital!

Nate plays a Zulu boy in the school play in October, he will be in a zulu costume, they are busily practiscing everyday! Here is his song... 10 little Zulu boys.

1 little 2 little 3 little zulu's
4 little 5 little 6 little zulu's
7 little 8 little 9 little zulu's
10 little zulu boys

They took their spears and they went out hunting... [repeat three times], 10 little Zulu boys
Zip went the spear and hit the springbok... [3 times again], 10 little Zulu boys
They picked it up and they carried it homeward... [3 times...]
The village was waiting and they clapped to greet them
They danced and danced till way pass midnight
They slept and slept till late in the morning.... 10 little zulu boys....

and mom's with a ringing song in their heeeeeaaaaaad.

Kiddie Gardening

So the kids came by to help me plant my vege patch, of course nothing ever goes as planned and my fantasies of neat rows of veggies is unrealisitc, in fact I should just rename my veggie box the surprise box, since I don't know where the onions were planted and whether the delicate salad leaves will survive their planting methodology. But they all had fun.

They worm performance went as planned, though as the kids came in different batches I only got to do my worm eating performance to a very shocked ethan, riley and kaikai. After introducing the worms and hearing them scream when the worms wiggle and squirm, I pull out a big one and toss it into my mouth, Ethan reacted like his mom, in pure terror and disgust, riley in shock and kaikai wanted to cry. When I gave them the worm in the candy wrapper, they even ran away! but later happily ate it.

Kaikai went to school today saying, "worms are delicious". Hope this has some evolutionary benefit or maybe he would resist dinners less if he had worms.... I wonder what would turn up if I googled earthworm recipes. I need to get more pics from Charmaine who was taking pics, I had ike on one hip and the kids all over the place.

Here is a pic of ike's toes sticking out of his sleeping thing. I wonder what he does at night? eat his toes? make holes in his jammies? Today at art class, he saw a glass of water and wanted it, apparently he said, "water". Charmaine and Shelley heard it but I didn't, maybe he's talking now???

weekend

Loren left for Dubai yesterday as they follow the Muslim calender and work on sundays. Nate has been having a sniffly nose, last night he coughed several times and woke up. We're back to the Sterimar nose cleaning, today seems better. We found a new place to go for brunch, its called Picolino's and they have a mini market there, a plant nursery and even a pet store with puppies on the weekend.

I got bullet an ostrich bone, after putting the boys to sleep, I find he has chewed thru half of it, I hope he doesn't get a tummy ache tonight... he is already letting out strange noises from his tummy. We got some fish food for nate to feed the fish in his school and also a bird feeder and a bamboo bird nest for the spring theme in school this week. I also sprouted some wheat for their activity table, am tempted to bring in my pet worms for show and tell.

Nate was really grumpy and yawning by 11, didn't want lunch and was asleep by 11:30. he slept till 3:30 and woke up bright and bouncy with much less runny nose. I took Ike for a walk then took a bath with him in the jacuzzi, he was reluctant at first but then had a good time and he then slept a long sleep too, up to 2 hours.

We went to have pizza (I have my thai egg and bean fried rice with hot hot chilli, which the pizza place allows us to take over). Ike having fun on the swing. I then overhear nate talking to a 4 year old boy (nate by the way was bigger than this western boy)...

Other boy: what is your brother's name?
Nate: Fatty bom bom.

well as you can see, ike looks rather huge in the last pic, if nate keeps up his missing lunches, ike will definiltey beat nate up in the future with his never ending eating. Ike will be a giant.

Spring Hat Day

Friday was Spring hat day at Nate's school, we all had to make hats for the kids, on monday I asked his teacher what a spring hat was and she described it as a hat with fruits and veges that the kids can feed the animals afterwards. I don't remember her mentioning flowers. So on tues, I dig out vege's from my fridge and luckily we still have his Japanese wide rim school boy hat that cost me 30 cents at a bazaar in Taipei.

With the help of some rubber bands, I managed to loop and tie the dangling carrots. I also strung a chain of beaded grapes but its not visible in the pics. I then raid michelle's garden as she has alot of parslet and mint (I raided it again for shabbat later in the week as well). Then with some left over cabbage I draped the back, am quite surprised how versatile rubber bands are.

On thurdays, chrsitine tells us (charmain and me) that she has he florist to her two girls hats!!!! I am like, I wish I knew that. Friday morning I am frantically trying to get all these fauna to stay on the hat. It surprisingly works. When we got to school, chrisine drove her car round twice so she could see his hat. Many people were laughing... when we got to school I realised why... everyone had flowers. Some were very professional, no one had a full vege hat!

The chinese girl with the very lovely hat is christine's daughter, kelly, after I told christine that the teacher said fruit and vege's, she tied the grapes to the hat. Apparently all the kids were chasing kelly to have a grape snack. There is also something to be said about the proverb about "dangling carrots", there was a parade of these hats by all the classes... by the time they did that... nate had eaten half of several of the carrots.