My success!

I started to bring Aloysius to the toilet to urine more often, even though he said “no”. It’s every 15 minutes. I will just carry him and put him on the potty. He will urine in the potty now :) Not voluntarily yet. But at least, it’s some improvement. After he urines, he will ask for a sticker. Hahaha… This morning, we missed two times. He urines every 10 minutes after his oatmeal. I have a “budget” for his diaper usage now. Hahaha… Two pieces a day. Soon, the “budget” will be one piece a day. And hopefully, it will be zero diaper a day soon :) I am looking forward to Aloysius being diaperless.

My dad was discharged from the hospital last Sunday. He was eagerly waiting to be discharged. Hahaha… It’s boring in the hospital. In total, he stayed for 6 nites, including 2 nites in the CCU, and 1 nite before the surgery. We paid for the package of 8 nites though. His recovery is pretty fast, isn’t it? He takes two Indinine a day after the surgery. Well, he can take more, but he refused cos he 不舍得. I have “budgeted” two boxes for him.

Bernice and Charlene are two months old today. They are growing very well. Bernice caught the flu bug last week. The virus was probably from someone either in the hospital or at Julia Gabriel. She was sneezing and coughing for 2 days and through the nite. I fed her Indinine 3 times a day. Luckily, it only lasted for 2 days. Prof. Shichida mentions that babies below 1 year old should not fall sick, cos it will affect their development emotionally. I carried Bernice as much as she wanted, but she slept most of the times, only waking up for milk. Phew…

Last Sunday, I went for the Shichida lesson with Aloysius. He was a very good boy. He’s now an expert in the 4 pieces puzzles. During the birds flashcards on the screen, he clung on to me, but still looked at them. I think he’s scared of some of the birds. I haven’t figure out which one. Mommy here gotta work harder on the linking memory.

Okie dokie… Gotta go out soon. Later gonna bring them to the national library. It’s school holidays for Aloysius. I will make it a point to bring him out somewhere every Tues and Thurs. Yesterday, he got nothing much to do at home. He “ransacked” my room till I got angry, “ransacked” the common bathroom and spilled my sis SKII miracle water, “ransacked” the kitchen, etc.

Now taking a breather since my ABC are asleep. I will be going to hospital again in the afternoon after feeding Aloysius. For the past two days, we have been out the whole day. It was very tiring. Lucky my MIL could take leave to help me with the gals and the maid at home. Else I gotta bring all of them to the hospital.

I was very worried for my dad the day before. I gave him a big, big hug before I left the hospital the night before the surgery. The emotional me cried a little. When Aloysius saw my tears, he looked at me and called “mama”. I think he knew I was sad, and he’s trying to comfort me. His surgery was scheduled at 8am, and it’s impossible for me to reach the hospital before that.

The surgeon told us that my dad’s condition was stable after the surgery. Then, we waited eagerly to see him. It took quite a while before he was wheeled to the CCU from the operating theatre. I saw dad first with all the pipes while the nurses and doctor were setting up the equipment. I saw him with lots of pipes all over. I felt the pain and cried a little :p After that peep, I dare not see anymore. I met his surgeon again at the corridor after lunch. The surgeon told me to go home and rest, and my dad was mildly sedated. Dad looked much better after the pipe to the lungs was taken out at about 4pm. He could speak a little softly. My dad is recovering pretty fast according to the nurse. Some people will still have the pipe to the lungs. Maybe the Indinine he took did help? I persuaded him to take 10 Indinine before the surgery. I told him that I rather spend "small money" than "big money" for complications. Initially, I wanted him to take 20 Indinine.

Patients in the CCU look scary to me with all the big, big pipes and wiring everywhere the body. Gosh... I will be going to visit dad again later this afternoon after Aloysius wakes up from his nap and finishes his lunch.

I missed my hubby very much :( Sobs… He’s now in Thailand for reservist. It’s 9 more days before he comes back. So far, we are coping well. We are lucky to have chosen a good maid. She learns things very fast and met up to my expectations. At least, I have someone to clean the home and do the laundry. And also help me to carry Bernice and Charlene at times. She will bath them in the morning too. That leaves me more time with Aloysius. I sit down with him to flip his books, and play with puzzles with him. I finally have some time to make some new flashcards :). The maid will cook for us too. I am not fussy about food though. As long as I can still swallow, it’s fine for me. I just showed her once or twice. Now, I just take out the vegetables that I want to eat and she will cook for me. As for communication, I am giving her time to learn. So far, I am happy cos we can still communicate what I want her to do. I am just worried that she will go crazy if she cannot communicate in the long run. On and off, I will ask her if everything is ok. I am glad that she will tell me that she dunno if she dunno what I was telling her.

Today, I brought Aloysius for his Shichida class. It was much better. We arrived very early :). I had a chat with teacher Jane. I realized that one of his classmate actually just started attending SM. I am not sure about the other 2 classmates. I suspect they are new to SM too. It’s no wonder they are not very settled and can be quite distracting. Nevertheless, Aloysius was a very good boy today. He was settled and can do the activities for the first one hour. It was much better compared to the last lesson. At least, there’s no more distraction from the titbits munching and toys that can make sound.

Last Friday, I took the courage to bring my ABC out together with the maid. It went pretty well though. Phew… We went to Changi Beach Club for sand play, swimming, lunch and chill out. Aloysius enjoyed himself very much. We went with 4 other toddlers around Aloysius’ age and their mommies. He was very happy. I was surprised that he’s very willing to play on the sand and with the sand. He enjoyed building sandcastle too. Probably he has been reading about sandcastle in his book lately. While we were having our delicious and sumptuous lunch, the toddlers enjoyed themselves very much, running around in the restaurant. We reached home at about 7pm. Aloysius fell asleep in the car and continued to sleep till the next morning. He did not eat his dinner. Hmm… Aloysius ate white bread that I don’t allow him to eat :(.

Charlene started to cough after the outing. I woke up at 2am to feed her some Indinine. Her cough got worse in the morning. I had no time to feed her more Indinine cos I was rushing out to accompany my dad to see his cardiac surgeon. While out, I got a call that Charlene was running a temperature. I was worried cos she’s still very young. Luckily it was a false alarm when I got home. But she was coughing quite frequently. My mum fed her more Indinine cos I was busy. She was fed Indinine a few times. Luckily her cough subsided after one day of Indinine :)

I gonna be busy next week. My dad will be admitted at Mt. E for a week for heart bypass. Probably will get Aloysius to ask my dad to take more Indinine before the surgery. I will be having some relatives staying over at my place.

Okie dokie… Gotta go to bed already. Later all…

Today, I lost my patience towards Aloysius. I am so tired and frustrated. He went diaperless today. I was very upset how come he just wanna urine on the floor. And play with his urine. Worse is putting his books on the urine.

I hid in the room and read the potty training book. I am desperate that he's potty trained. I had started this potty training journey since he was 13 months old. I wondered what had I done not so right. In one of the chapters, I gotta let him know that I am upset when he has accidents. I gotta teach him that urinating and poo-ing in his shorts is dirty. Hmm… it’s the opposite of what I have been doing. Perhaps, I gotta change to this style. I gotta change him immediately after he urines or poo, even though he does not want to get washed and changed. This is to get him used to the feeling of cleanliness and dryness. It sounds logical. What I have been doing was keep “persuading” him or get him interested to go to the bathroom to get washed. It’s rather energy draining for me. On the positive side, I do have some successes with potty training. T. Harv Eker said we need to appreciate and count our successes rite? Ok… Aloysius is interested in stickers. Sometimes when he will sit on the potty for a sticker. And another sticker for doing his “business” there.

I was reading a chapter on potty training from infant stage. I gotta start potty training for my gals already! Gulp! Think I gotta get mysellf mentally prepared for the mess. It was suggested to let them go diaperless too. And identify the cries or cues from the infant before urinating or poo-ing. When they urine or poo, I gotta give a cue. Not before nor after. After a few weeks, they will urine or poo on cue already. By 1 year old, they will be able to control their spinchter and go diaperless. hmm... I am thinking maybe a cloth nappy will do the job too. But I am worried about the soiled mattresses. Any ideas how to prevent soiled mattress?

An interesting website on infant potty training: http://timl.com/ipt/

Yesterday, I went for Shichida class with Aloysius. It’s my first time for this term. We have 3 new classmates. Hmm… it did not go well for me. I was pretty stressed up and exhausted after the lesson. I gotta feed the gals before we left home, and rushed there in a cab. We reached there on time, but to find a long, long queue at the door to measure temperature. After that, I realized the classroom is changed. My hubby did not tell me there’s a change in classroom. And I could not find anyone at the reception to help me to check which classroom I should go to. It took a while there too. When we reached the class, I was already quite upset cos we were rather late. We were not settled. Aloysius keep climbing on the chair. Even during his favourite flashcards and sawako sessions, he was distracted. His classmate beside us kept eating sweets almost throughout the lesson. And she has got a toy gun that can make sound. At the end of the lesson, I was already exhausted. I think somehow Aloysius knew I was not in a very good mood. He was a good boy. He walked all the way to the MRT. On the train, I teared and the tears rolled down my cheeks. I was very sad how come I do not understand my Aloysius anymore. Aloysius kept calling me “mama” and looked at my teary eyes. He knew I was sad. I gave him a hug. He continued to walk on his own when we got down the train. Usually, he will want me to carry him all the way. He walked till he almost tripped on the uneven pavement, and asked me to carry him home. So pitiful hor? Perhaps his legs are tired already. He had never walked so far.

During this lesson, we were given the reconfirmation letter for next term. If we want to withdraw, we can write in before 25 May. I was rather negative after the lesson and thought that if it’s so stressful, I might as well withdraw him from SM. Being stressed up and upset is not doing any good to both of us, and will not be good in the long run. Learning should be in a relaxed environment. I am also stressed up at home trying to do the homework. Come to think of it, I really enjoyed his lesson at Julia Gabriel.

Last Tuesday, I accompanied Aloysius for his Julia Gabriel playclub. It’s the first time since I gave birth. He was very happy along the way. When we reached the class, he dun wanna go into class and clung on to me for a few minutes. Perhaps he’s afraid that I will be gone. After a while, he slowly get into the routine of the class. He was very happy. On and off, he looked for me and hugged me. Both of us enjoyed the class very much.