OO @School - A Different Girl

Today's our very first parent-teachers session. We were dreading it - "Haiz, the teachers are going to complain about OO." I hope they don't paint too bad a picture ... or suggest that OO's not ready for school. We don't really have a choice, Mama can't always be in Singapore so we need to put OO in school.

And when we came to it, the conversation way off of what we expected. "Emily has been adapting well in school, she eats her breakfast and lunch, and she can understand a lot of what we say." "Huh? Does she throw tantrums at other children or the teachers?" "?? no, she is very obedient ... she maybe gets angry when she wants a toy to herself but other than that she is attentive to our instructions."

"Hold on, are we taking about the same Emily? We are talking our Emily yeah? Not another Emily yes?" ... For reason I will never figure out, Emily seems to be an angel in school. The teachers even praise her for following instructions and getting her classmates to follow too.

The question of "How can this be?" was ringing through my head the whole time. How is it that our little brat is a terror at home and yet a well behaved child in school?? Arrgghhhh she is bullying everyone at home!!!

Civilization Revolution 2

I've played many of Sid Meier's Civilization series. Even though each instalment is primarily the same as the previous, I've always found every one engaging and fully justifying the $$ investment in the game.

When it comes to the mobile version of Civilization, the Revolution series seems like a lite version of the original. It's more fast paced where you can finish a game in a couple of hours. Is it the limitations of the mobile device hardware that they make watered down versions of classic games?

Oh and for those who like to play multiplayer, you'll be disappointed. The app has not been updated since 2014 and the multiplayer events are no longer supported. For $15, you would expect more from the developers. Nonetheless if you need a quicky fix on Civilization, this certainly fits the bill.

Happy 2nd Birthday 妹妹

OO has grown a lot over the last year ... faster than anyone would have let her if we had a choice. Already she is coming into her own ... stubborn, bossy, opinionated, 古灵精怪, that million dollar smile. She has filled a void I never really give any concern on but ever so often feel.

March - Starting to walk

April - Attracted to rides

May - 手牵手大家一起走

June - Falling Sick

July - Slipper Thief

August - Helping clock steps :-P

September - A rare outing with Ah-Gong and Ah-Ma

October - Playpen can no longer keep her in

November - Getting used to new home

December - Shining pearly whites

January - Starting School

February - Falling Sick

The past month has been very trying for everyone, especially OO. I'm glad she is home now and hope she doesn't fall sick so soon again. When she's healthy she is amazing fun.

回家了！

You can't have my ball ball~!

I can self play now

着么又生病了～ *Cry

Making friends

Having a treat with Papi

Building creativity with Crayons

Now that she is a big girl, I guess I'm gonna slowly limit the posts on 11th. I'll still post pictures of our little cutie, just not a regular thing on her monthly anniversary. This was always the plan and I think it would be good to blog about us as a family rather than focusing on OO.

Happy 2nd Birthday our little princess *Love from Papi & Mami

OO @School - Birthday Cake

Meimei and I deliberated quite a while on whether we should get OO a cake at school to celebrate her birthday. I doubt she knows what a birthday is about other than having cake to eat. But given the recent illness we decided we might as well liven things up.

Initially OO was placed at the table alone with the rest of her class mates in PG1 & PG2 staring at her. She looked lost and awkward, unsure of what's happening. She only relaxed when the rest of playgroup mates, Lora, Daniel, Javier joined her for a class photo.

I wished I could be there but I'm practically out of leave days at work. Luckily Mama and Meimei were able to join in the celebration at school and capture all the lovely moments. 

Falling Sick Is Expensive

Falling sick is expensive ... and especially so when you do not have adequate insurance coverage. We had taken the free basic hospitalisation plan from Great Eastern for OO but stupidly never looked into getting more coverage for her. And regardless it's fair or not, I put some of blame for that oversight on the agent. Another part of the blame goes to myself for trusting that he is giving us the best simply because he is Meimei's agent.

Since the first febrile seizure last June, we approached him to see if we could get more cover. He seemed nonchalant about it, commenting that it will be difficult to get more because of the hospitalisation. The best part of it was my utter dumbness to sign up for an accident policy with him for OO. I wasn't thinking right at the time. He's only interested in signing up the easy ones and leaving us dry on the critical ones. Meimei's close friend or not, he is not ever getting my business again ... no matter which insurer he works for.

We also tried getting OO a life policy with early critical illness at the same time. But because of the hospitalisation, we were again rejected. The underwriter deferred it till June 2017 to see if OO will go into hospital again. What the ... and this recent hospitalisation stay has practically closed all possible avenues of getting any coverage from Great Eastern.

Sigh ... Her stay costed about $5.8k and we weren't even in a single bedder. About a thousand was paid through Medisave and basic hospitalisation covered another thousand. We had to pay the balance $3.8k in cash ... It practically burned through any holiday plans for the year. Aaarrrrghhhh!!!

So now I'm trying to get coverage with my AIA agent of 25 years. He has 5 kid of his own so he knows the type of coverage a parent should have. If he delivers the hospitalisation plan, I'm gonna change all of OO's insurance and mine to AIA. Already we were able to sign up for a life plan through him ... hopefully he can push this through too.

40 Degrees

It's painful to blog about this but I suppose it serves as a gentle reminder of how fragile OO can be. After close to 2 months battling the flu and cold, her tiny body finally couldn't take it and the fever came on Saturday night. It went up as high as 39.2 degrees at one point and it was a scary sight to see her dazed and listless.

She was feverish throughout Sunday and right after her nap in the evening she started twitching. We had learned to recognise the signs of her seizures and immediately took drastic actions. We took her for a bath to try to lower her temperature. She was about 39.5 and was flushing red on her cheeks. Dr Ang had given us what we thought was the rectal insert of Ibuprofen and we administered it right after the bath. Afraid that her fever might continue to escalate (the bath only brought it down 0.5 degrees), we took the opportunity after the bath and medication to send her to Thomson.

Thank God (this has to be the first time I ever wrote this) we took her to the hospital ...

It turns out that the rectal medication we gave OO wasn't Ibuprofen. It was a medication meant for her seizure, and was to be given only after a seizure episode. Wow ... what a relief that we came to the hospital. I cannot imagine the anguish we would be going through thinking we had given Ibuprofen and yet her temperature was constantly rising. We would be out of options to bring her temperature down till the next doze 6 hours later.

So we admitted her on Sunday evening and she was given Ibuprofen through the rectal  to bring her temperature down quickly once we got to the room. Before that I had taken her for a blood test while Meimei worked on the admissions. Dr Ang came down at around 8-9pm when the blood test results were out and ordered two courses of antibiotics. OO is very very sick.

Because one of the antibiotics was through a drip, Dr Ang and the Nurses took OO to a room to insert a needle on her right hand. They also had to bind her left so she wouldn't be able to pull out the needle. She was screaming at the top of her voice while they did the procedure. Meimei and I wasn't allowed in and we could only stand helplessly outside the room while we hear OO's cries for help *Cries >.<

Again like at KK, I stayed to accompany her. Meimei had wanted very much to stay but she had to pick up the new maid on Tuesday. That night I was up every hour and didn't get much sleep. After the Ibuprofen wore off close to midnight her temperature started to climb again. The 2am temperature check put her at 40.2 degrees. She was given another dose of Ibuprofen immediately and I tried my best to sponge her. Thankfully it slowly went down after that.

Monday was trying too. The fever kept coming back and went as high as 38.8 on one of the checks. OO was on a constant course of paracetamol, antibiotics and also an inhaler of sorts to help with the phlegm and breathing. It was only till Tuesday morning that the fever was finally under control.

Seeing that OO was looking better, I took her for a treat at the Delifrance cafe. She loves the cinnamon pastry. Sadly she wasn't well enough for Dr Ang to clear her and she has to stay another day. I let Mama and Meimei fuss over her through the day :-)

As I had an important presentation I couldn't accompany OO for her discharge today. I could only watch for the regular updates from the messages.

Even though she is allowed to go home, OO is still sick and on antibiotics. Nonetheless we were all glad she is back home where everyone can watch over her. I was especially happy when Meimei sent over a picture of her taking an afternoon nap at home. Phew ... the worst is pass but we still have to keep our vigilance up for the week.

Starbase Orion

A Master of Orion clone? Perhaps ... but still fun to play. It brought back fond memories of my teenage years when I was gaming on a Pentium II.

The interface will be familiar to fans of MoO. Essentially a galaxy view with stars to explore. Even the home screen looks like a leaf of MoO. That's not to say its not a good game on it own. I've been playing these for the last days and pretty sure it's a keeper.

If there is a bone to pick, I'll have to say the AI and diplomacy aspects are not as refined as MoO. Yes, MoO isn't that good to begin with but Starbase Orion doesn't seem to be at that standard, even though its a game built 20 years(?) after MoO.

But if you are looking for a simple turn-based strategy game to pass time, this is a good game to play. At $11, why not give it a try?

OO @School - Hand Prints

OO likes to work with her hands. And they encourage it as part of the motor skills training at playgroup. She has been asking us to draw the outline of her hand when she places them on pieces of paper. We didn't know exactly what they were learning in school but thought they could be doing the same.

Then we saw the pictures from the school's portal and discovered she was playing with paints and making handprints.

Nyama was especially excited to see OO enjoying the activity and proudly commented that OO made the best prints in her class #GrandmaPride. Meimei and I love that the school is simulating her senses with different activities, things which is hard for us to replicate at home.

Poop-Poop @ Vivocity

OO decided she needed to poop and squatted right there and then along the walkways at Vivocity. I, of course, accompanied her and simply wait for her to do her thing.

Falling Asleep On The Highchair

Not sure what happened but OO fell asleep on the high chair during lunch. I suppose her illness contributed to it.

Afraid she is uncomfortable in the chair I tried to lift her out. That was a big big mistake. She became agitated and her knees pulled in against her thigh, clamping tight on the chair. Sigh ... and she was screaming and crying because we interrupted her sleep. The more we try to pull her out, the tighter she holds her legs ... Arrgghh strong to self ... never disturb OO when she's sleeping.

Bastion

Since quiting Wonder Tactics, I've vowed not to get into online gaming for awhile. The money I've spent in that game could have bought me a couple of the big name paid games like Final Fantasy series, Banner Saga etc.

As I search through the pay-once-and-play catalog in iTunes, I chanced on Bastion which is getting very good reviews. At $7, it seemed like a cheap investment on a game that potentially can add up to 10-15 hours of gameplay.

I must say the graphics of the game is fantastic. It feels polished and the music score certainly adds to the embience of the game world. Sadly attempting to play this on a Ipad Pro has proven to be a challenge for me. Maybe its my stubby fingers or my lack of 'skills' for real time action games. Whichever it is, I gave up after playing it a couple of hours.

No biggie, at least I know now not to choose another fast paced action game for my next buy. Well, I've always been more of a turn-based strategy, old-school RPG (remember Might and Magic series, Daggerfall, etc) type of player.

OO @School - 我的五官

The week's key theme is learning about self. I think because it's playgroup they weave a lot of play and hands on activities for the kids. That's good, OO likes to touch and feel.

The only thing I would liked them to do better is have individual shots of the children and not put them up in a montage. I don't want any of the other parents complaining that I put up their child's photo on the wild wild web.

23 Months - Horrible Temper

OO has been sick for most of the month. In fact I think she hasn't recovered, only keeping the ailments at bay with medication. And with the irritation of an illness comes quick temper and frustration. She has been pretty stubborn. I wonder if it's just due to the sickness or part of it comes from entering the terrible 2 phase.

"The Mama on the Bus go Shh Shh Shh~"

A snuggle feast with friends 

Out with Piyao~

The only way to travel on a pram

"Gong Xi Fa Cai!"

Tidbits ... Mine all mine!

Gaigai with NyaOng

Relax Time with NyaMa

Sticking to Mama

OO @School - Expressing Feelings

OO is learning about expressions of feelings this week through handiwork. She looks like she likes to draw. Hmm maybe we should get her some colouring pens or crayons.

It's been a month since starting school. She seems to be enjoying the activities. I'm still monitoring to make sure she really fits in. I suppose I'm trying to convince myself that we did not send her to school too early. These photos are always encouraging that we made the right choice.

Letting Go Wonder Tactics

I've been playing a game called Wonder Tactics for a little over a year. Its another game from the publishers of Summoners War. I had gotten sick of SW after a good 3 years and decided to go into another game.

The mechanics of the game is pretty similar to SW except that it takes lesser commitments to get ahead. Well one of the primary reason was that the player base is so much smaller in WT than SW. I estimate there to be about three to four hundred on the WT Asia server versus thousands on SW Asia one.

But that's ok, I like it easy ... its a game after all. What drove to quit though was a silly whimsical error on my part, though I blame the game developer for implement useless updates. They had just made minor interface tweaks over the weekend. And before I could get used to the changes, I made a fatal mistake of selling off a key weapon on a main toon. 

So I was so pissed that literally squander all my gems on hero summoning that amounted to null. Essentially I was destroying my account and end any hopes of returning to the game. I had spent hundred odd dollars on the game and this washes all of it away. I suppose it's a far price to pay for a years of gameplay but with this they are not getting any cent of my money.