A visit to the ENT Specialist

After weeks and months of complaining ear itchiness, we brought Ziyi to the ENT Specialist (Dr. Lim Wye Keat) on Saturday morning at Assunta Hospital. The queue was long, from registration to collecting medicine at the pharmacy. While waiting for our turn to see the doctor (almost 1.5 hours for 8 patients before us), we went for a quick bite at the cafe inside the hospital. The cafeteria food don't look appetizing to us, and Ziyi was asking to eat croissant, for the first time! So we settled for a clean and healthy looking cafe, ordered a large croissant for her and she ate 3/4 of it, she absolutely likes it.

When waiting for our turn at the waiting room, she happily sang all her favorite children songs and I had to keep reminding her to lower down her voice. LOL!

What surprised us further was her calmness and she was a brave kid when the doctor examined her. She even lifted up her dress to show the doctor her eczema patch on her thigh when she heard the doctor mentioned "eczema". Doc's diagnosis: Very dry ear wax, and this is mainly so if she has eczema. Her ear canal is dry and itchy, thus she is always bugging us to use the cotton bud on her. 

Doc has to clean her ear and don't recommend sedation as opposed to the other ENT at Columbia Asia (we totally had no faith in that doc and glad we went for this doc now). She lied down on my chest and I held her tight to assure her everything is going to be fine. Doc's procedure: Dropped ear drops (hydrogen peroxide), sucked using a long tool that acts like a vacuum cleaner, and remove the wax! 
Took about few minutes and my brave girl did not even move a wee bit. I'm so proud of her.

We were shocked to see that big piece of wax, which is dark brown and greyish in color. eeewww..

However, when we turned her for the other (right) ear, she started to refuse. I guess she was really tensed and scared during the procedure because her heart beats really fast. So doc gave me the ear drop, to be used for 2 weeks, and to come back in a month's time for her right ear. Although we were a bit disappointed that we couldn't continue with her right ear, but we were very glad at least one ear was solved. Total damage: RM179. Pretty alright, given the professionalism and expertise of Dr Lim, and not to mention our confidence in him handling our precious one.

I must say I'm actually a little upset that her eczema is affecting both her ear canals and it must be very uncomfortable for her. Must source for something to apply / drop in order to relieve her.

No pics were taken at the hospital. 

This picture here was taken on her 4th Birthdate together with one of her good friends. 

An Update from Ziyi's Class Teacher

When we met up with Ziyi's class teacher, Teacher Kim, last month, she commented that Ziyi is a very obedient girl. I'm very surprised that she's labelled as an obedient child. However, I'm pretty sure she is much much more obedient in school than at home, gosh, she drives me up the wall almost everyday. 

Academic wise, she is doing very well in her class. I did not even  know that she has been appointed as the class monitor since beginning of the year. She has to help teacher to distribute books to the children according to their names, carry out whatever duties assigned to her and also to assist Teacher Kim to guide the other children to read (Bahasa and English). She is a precocious child when it comes to languages. I'm pretty impressed with her reading skills.

In short, Teacher Kim likes Ziyi very much and is satisfied with her performance in class. How I wish she is just as obedient whenever she's with me.

In search of enrichment centres / tuition centres, whatever you call it..

I went through the hassle of searching a kindy cum daycare for Ziyi when she 2 yo and 2.5 yo (after her first kindy closed down). It was not an easy process at that time but we finally settled her with one very near to my house. There were some dissatisfaction with the kindy but I can still close one eye and not be too fussy about it, since Ziyi is happy going to the kindy.

Now at 4 yo, I strongly feel that it's time for her to attend some classes besides her usual kindy hours. There are so many so-called enrichment centres mushrooming near my neighbourhood but I have not taken the initiative to visit / survey any of them yet. There are academic ones, dance classes, arts & crafts, etc etc. But I can't afford to send Ziyi to all of them though I wish I could. It would be too taxing on her and also on our pockets!

I'm going to start her off with only 1 for now. But what? Should I send her to Mandarin classes, or Robotix, or Enopi Maths or...? I seriously have no clue. >_<

War between Ziyi & me!!

Yes, you heard me right! It ain't easy disciplining kids nowadays. I always tell myself to keep cool and not raise my hands on her, but all I can say is that it is easier said than done. 

Last night Ziyi refused to keep her toys away after playing with them and as usual, she gave plenty of excuses for not doing it. As stubborn as she is (wonder whose gene she inherited), she did not want to move her butt nor lift her finger even after a few threats from me for throwing them away into the bin. 

War begun when I started picking them up and dump into a plastic bag, she snatched the plastic from me, and me snatching it back from her. She wouldn't let me throw it nor would she want to pick them up! She screamed and wailed and me shouting back at her. The whole village of people in my house thought I was abusing and beating her up. 

Toys were flung everywhere in the room and it was really like a kiddy fight between me and her. LOL.

Finally she agreed to pick them up and apologized to me, and promised to clean up her toys in the future. Obviously, mummy always win when it comes to war like this. At least for now. 

She definitely is one fierce, stubborn and never say die girl. It's gonna be hard disciplining her. All the best to me!

At 4 years old

It's been very long since my last update. I have been so busy with my new job now, and I have neglected my blog. I shall just keep to my objective of updating Ziyi's progress, lest all these precious memories will be forgotten few years down the road.

She has just celebrated her 4 years birthday bash at KizSports & Gym, Empire Subang. She had a great time and I have no regrets for celebrating this for her at 4 and not when she was 3! She has grown up so much and appreciate it better. 

At 4, she can now dress herself up, including her own t-shirts/blouses. She was only capable of wearing her bottoms previously, but now she is so proud of showing off her skill at wearing her own tops!

She is so much more obedient now, compared to...hmm, when she was around 1+ to 3+ years old. Gosh, those days were terrible!

Every morning, she will pee, brush her teeth, gargle, wash her face and dress up all by herself! I only need to ensure she does it in a faster manner, else I will be late for work! 

Food wise, she is still a lil' bit fussy but overall, she eats almost everything, including vegetables and meat. Spaghetti has became her favorite food now, just like me! My Cinaman daughter is slowly becoming more angmoh. LOL! One not so good change about her is that she dislikes most fruits served to her, unlike her younger days. She doesn't mind banana, papaya, pineapple, watermelon and yellow kiwifruit. The rest will have to force-feed. 

My once clingy daughter is not so clingy anymore. With my hectic schedule, I don't have the luxury of picking her up from school in the evening anymore. She would play and eat her snacks at home without me around in the evening, and once in a while she would still bug me to bring her out to the park before dinner. Her dinner is served later in the evening after I reach home from work.

I shall update her performance in school in the next post. Stay tuned!