The days after hospitalization

I mentioned that Sean was already bouncing around, pushing his boundaries and testing our patience. He was rather naughty from the moment we came back home. He was just literally bouncing here and there and was rather deviant when we tell him not to.

We went back to see the Pediatrician from the hospital the next morning just for routine check up. The doctor said he seemed ok since he was already gaining his voice back and had no more fever. He said that we did not have to finish the whole bottle of Prednisone syrup, which is a corticosteroid, and only had to give him for another day.

We were wondering what caused his sudden extra naughtiness. Maybe while he was sick he was obedient, now that he is feeling fine, he wants to do everything at once, and therefor the comparison makes it look like he was naughtier than ever? He really could not sit still, jumping on the bed and running here and there, just like an energizer bunny. He was very reckless and deviant.

However, once we stopped the prednisone yesterday, I noticed that his behavior improved. Today, his voice is already back and he is back to normal behavior. I strongly suspect that the prednisone was the cause of this particular behavior.

It is a good thing that we did not have to finish the whole bottle. The list of side effects of taking Prednisone is long and scary!


From About.com

Prednisone Side Effects

The most common side effects of taking prednisone include muscle weakness, osteoporosis, fractures, Cushing's syndrome, pituitary-adrenal axis suppression, growth suppression, glucose intolerance, acne, edema, hypertension, hypokalemia, alkalosis, cataracts, glaucoma, peptic ulcer, nausea, vomiting, headache, vertigo, seizures, psychoses, pseudotumor cerebri, and skin atrophy. Some kids also develop mood swings, become irritable, and have trouble sleeping when they take prednisone.

Most side effects, especially growth suppression, edema, and immune system problems are going to be worse with long term use of Prednisone and less likely with the short term course that most children take for typical asthma attacks or for relief from poison ivy, etc.

What You Need To Know

Although one of the more useful medicines in Pediatrics, especially when you see the dramatic effects prednisone has on a child with a severe asthma attack, it can have serious side effects when overused or misused and it should only be prescribed when it is really necessary.

Other important information:

• your child should not take prednisone if he has a systemic fungal infection or has a known hypersensitivity to prednisone
• call your Pediatrician if your child is taking prednisone and has been exposed to measles or chickenpox
• if your child has asthma and is frequently taking prednisone, then he really should be on a daily preventative medicine, such as Advair, instead

Sean was hospitalized for Laryngitis

Sean started having a mild fever on Tuesday night after swimming. It was mild so we weren't worried. On Wednesday night, his fever became very high. We gave him his medication and wiped him down. We immediately brought him to see his pediatrician on Thursday morning.

Mummy and Daddy took care of Sean on Thursday and sponged him throughout the day because his fever was still high despite the medication.

This video was taken on Thursday afternoon when he started losing his voice.



He started to wheeze heavily in the evening. I called the pediatrician who suggested that we bring him to the hospital to get the nebulizer. But before we brought him there, we went to nearby GP first hoping that he could get the nebulizer there because he didn't seem to be that sick. (Ok, I didn't know what a nebulizer was) The GP also told us to bring him to the hospital. So then we registered and saw another GP who was on duty who confirmed that he needed to stay the night.

Sean was actually still quite active, and I wouldn't know that his heavy breathing was something considered serious if we didn't see these doctors. His wheezing is called Stridor and he had Laryngitis - Croup, which is a respiratory disease.

So Sean had 2 nebulizer treatment at the Emergency Room, one for Adrenaline and another for Steroids before they took his blood for blood test and checked him in. We told him that he shouldn't talk because he needed to save his voice. He was very obedient and behaved beautifully.

This is picture of Sean in the emergency room. He had to cover his eyes because the steroid nebulizer can irritate the eyes.







They gave him 2 suppositories during the night and 2 more nebulizer treatment. By morning his fever was down, but they gave him 2 more nebulizer treatment, one each, adrenaline and steroids.

Sean was sad and a bit depressed. He wanted to go home. Poor boy, he had no voice, so his cry was silent.



Sam and I went home for a quick shower when Mum and Dad came over. We brought him a few toys. He was so happy to at least have a few toys.

We had the laptop so we could watch movies while he was there. But there was no internet so he couldn't play any games.


We asked the doctor to let us check out that day but he told us to wait until evening when he comes and check Sean's condition. He was stable so he said we could leave.

While waiting for the documentations, which took several hours, Sean fell asleep. When he woke up, he complained that his throat hurt. So we asked for another nebulizer treatment before we leave.

By this time, Sean is already so scared of being in the hospital. He didn't want the nebulizer anymore, but we told him this was so that his throat would not hurt anymore. He was crying the whole time he had the mask on. He whispered in his hoarsed voice, " Enough, no more." Poor boy. I was glad that he no longer had fever and we could leave that day.

He was so happy to come home. He wanted to do everything that he missed. He was so impatient to be able to play his games online, and then played a bit of Lego, and needed to touch everything in the room just to feel reassured that he's finally home.

This experience really taught me that we cannot treat symptoms such as coughing or wheezing too lightly. I would have probably wait until Friday to bring him to the doctor again if Mum did not say that the wheezing is not normal. I never thought that Laryngitis was dangerous. I thought it was something that would go away after a few days. I guess this teach me a lesson to be more alert next time.


Today, Sam and I had to rest from the whole episode. I had a mild fever and both of us were just exhausted. On the other hand, Sean is already bouncing around and pushing his boundaries and trying our patience!

From Wikipedia:

Croup
It is characterized by a barking cough; a whistling, obstructive sound (stridor) as the child breathes in; and hoarseness due to obstruction in the region of the larynx. It may be mild, moderate or severe, and severe cases, with breathing difficulty, can be fatal if not treated in a hospital

Being 3 years old

I think turning 3 years old is a big milestone for many toddlers. Somehow they seem to grow up so quickly.

Sean's speech is more and more fluent everyday. Sam has been encouraging Sean to tell stories to get him to think and talk. So Sean would go, " One day... watch Mighty Sasquatch..." and proceed to tell us a story from one of the episode of Animal Mechanicals.

Yes, his current favorite character is Mighty Sasquatch. His favorite color is blue, his favorite letter is the letter D, which he associate with being blue in color. Letter B was yellow. We went through letter C very quickly, so it didn't get a color of it's own. And his favorite number is number 3 this week.

We've been playing 'I spy something blue' when we're in the car, and he'll go, "More.... more blue!"

He's been playing more and more imaginatively. I got some 2nd hand toys from the library, bits and pieces of McDonald's toys or free toys that people donated to the library. They then sell them for fund raising. I paid a few ringgit for a few packs of toys. We got small Mickey, Minney, Donald and 2 Mickey faces, a rocket, an airplane, baby Shrek and Pinocchio . Sean was immediately attached to Mickey and Minney, and we've been playing Mickey and Minney everyday.

He brought them even to bathe the other day. Mickey and Minnie fly in rockets, drive cars, and go through lots of accidents as he crash and bang them. He really enjoys it, but we have to play with him. Sean is Mickey, Mummy is Minnie, Daddy is Donald.


Writing and playing Lego

I finally bought a box of colored chalk, and we played on the porch yesterday. To make it interesting, I said we could write on the porch floor. Of course, Sean was only interested in words that start with the letter D. So I wrote dog, duck and dinosaur. I told him to try writing too. He didn't want to write dog, duck or dino, but he was ok with writing 'dim' and 'dig' The activity took only about 10 minutes.





Then, out of the blue he decided that he wanted to play Lego. Perhaps it was because we went to Bryan's house and he played blocks there. We bought the copy Lego for him last Christmas, but it wasn't played very much. It was more of him telling me to make something for him.








But this time round, he wants to make a car himself, a blue car of course. =D And mummy had to make a red car, while Daddy's was yellow. He was rather proud of his blue car, and I'm glad to see that his fingers are able to manipulate the small lego pieces. I had to help him a little bit, but he made it mostly by himself.



Reading and Typing

Tonight, he read out the whole book 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?' almost all by himself. He had trouble reading the word 'looking' and 'black', but once I read it out to him, he had no trouble reading out the whole book. Maybe it's because 'Brown Bear' is an easy book, it's repetitive and has a nice rhyme to read.

I haven't spent much time teaching him how to read. After reading so many books about reading,I've decided that I'm not going to push him about reading now since he's only 3 years old. The simplest way is to read lots of books to him and I felt that is the best way to go for now. But if he wants to know what a word says, then I'll tell him what it says. I've also started to do book reviews. This is just to document the books that we've borrowed from the library. So if we like a book, I don't have to crack my head to remember the title. You can check it on my other blog.

He likes the 'I can sing a rainbow' song. So I put the song sheet on the wall and he'll read out the colors. Sometimes Sean likes to type on the computer. So Sam will tell him to read the colors from the song and copy the colors. So he'll go back and forth between the laptop and the wall to type them out. Sam will help him change the color of the font and he'll type

RED
YELLOW
BLUE
ORANGE
PURPLE

He can type by himself
APPLE
BEE
CAT
DOG

Then recently, he's started typing
RED APPLE
YELLOW BANANA
BLUE WHALE
ORANGE ORANGE
We had to tell him how to type 'banana' and 'whale' ,of course.

YouTube videos

Just to say that I've changed the settings of Sean's birthday videos. It should be able to be viewed now.

The birthday parties at Playgroup

On Thursday,
we had a simple birthday party at Playcentre playgroup. This time Sean shared a birthday with Hanzjay who also turned 3 years old this week. Hanzjay's mum, Sherinder, got the cake and drinks, so I got the rest of the food, egg sandwiches, chicken nuggets, sweet corn and watermelon. Things kids would eat, nothing fancy.

When I told Samantha and Amelia that Sean was sad that his friends weren't around on his birthday, they immediately offered to come over after Kai's kindy finished. So they came around 1.30pm to surprise Sean.









Thursday afternoon
Sean, Kristen and Kai, had a great time fighting and playing with each other. I think at this age, kids are just funny. Sean would miss them so much when they aren't around, but when they meet, they fight and then Sean usually would cry. But when later Kai and Kristen leave, Sean would miss them again. Sometimes I don't understand them. =P But Sean was really happy to have them here at home. That was a great afternoon, for us mums as well as the children.



I baked the cake for Friday's party in the afternoon and spent the evening decorating it. I made the cake for both Sean and Eason who's sharing the birthday party at Children's Corner.

Sean wanted Animal Mechanical Mouse this time round and I made a dinosaur for Eason. I also named the cupcakes Sean, Eason and Charmaine who was also having her birthday this week.

That was a lot of work. I think next year, we'll just have one big party and make a big cake. The baking doesn't take that long, but the decorating takes a lot of time. And next time, I want to have proper equipment! Doing it the old fashion way is a lot of work. But, I'm just happy that Sean is excited about both his cakes. =D

At Children's Corner on Friday



After all that preparation, the friday party was a good one. All we had to do was just enjoy the day. Joey, Eason's mummy, brought a pinata for the kids to hit at the end of the playgroup. Everything was fine until Eason was injured when Clarence swung the stick too vigorously. He was hit on his eyelid. Poor Eason, he was shocked and very scared. After crying for a long time, he managed to open his eyes. I hope his eyes are alright.


I brought the camera and was able to record short clips of Sean dancing. Daddy came along for both Thursday and Friday birthday party, and recorded the birthday for us. I think Sean enjoyed himself very much this birthday with so many parties going on.







The next day, he asked for Animal Mechanical Mighty Sasquatch cake! I think he thinks now he can ask for any cakes he wants. LOL =P

Sean is 3 years old.

Dear Sean,

Mummy is so happy to see grow so much within this past year. You've become a happy person who likes to joke and tease mummy and daddy. You are also a strong willed person who has definite views about certain things, for example, you insist that the Rainbow song should go

Red and yellow and green and pink....
When it should go Red and yellow and pink and green.

It takes quite a lot to get you to change your mind, but being a good boy, you decide to give in and accept our version, except that you'll give a long sigh and say, ok mummy or ok, daddy...

The last week or so, you seem to have grown up a lot. There has been a lot of sighing whenever we tell you NOT to do something. I hear a lot of '(sigh) ok, mummy', which I find very funny because you sound so old, he he he.... =D

But you are mostly a happy child who loves to joke. You find it funny when you make the figurines walk on their heads. You love to get on my knees and fly about. You love going to McDonald or KFC. Today, you were playing with Mickey and Minney, pretending that they are buying fries and hamburger at McDonald.

You like playing with Transformer, and you are currently crazy about Animal Mechanicals. You can watch the same 4 episodes that we found on YouTube over and over again for hours. (shake head)

This past month, your computer skill has improved tremendously. From not being able to handle the mouse, you are getting to be rather dexterous with the mouse, and are now able to navigate and play on the pbskids website or YouTube quite well.

Mummy is not always there to see you play computer because you usually play computer with daddy when mummy is working, but I am impressed to see you play the games so well.

Somehow ever since you are aware that you are 3 years old, no longer 2 years old, you've suddenly become more grown up. Don't grow up too fast, Sean. Live life to the fullest my son, and always ask God to protect and bless you in Jesus name, Amen.

We love you very much,
Mummy and Daddy.
xxx








The making of the birthday cake

The last few days we've been hyping Sean about his birthday and get him to sing birthday song. I asked him what cake he wanted to have. I was planning to make him a spiderman cake which is a simple design. But since his craze with Animal Mechanicals started, he was not interested in any other characters.

At first he was crazy about The Mighty Sasquatch. Ok, Sasquatch is not too difficult to draw. But last night, he was quite definite that he wanted a T-Rex cake. There are not many Animal Mechanicals pictures online. So I just Googled and found 2 possible drawings. My drawing wasn't very good, but that's all I had. =P

This is my first birthday cake and I don't really have equipment, except for an egg whisk and some baking paper. Yesterday, I had a really good workout on my right arm, first, creaming the butter and sugar for the cake, then creaming the cream cheese and icing sugar for the icing.

There were a few problems. First, the pyrex container I used for the cake was slightly too big for the oven, and thus had to be put in diagonally, which made the cake uneven. A lot of cake was wasted to get an even rectangular cake.

Sean helped with the sifting icing sugar and whisking the butter, but I didn't really let him help much this time round. While icing the cake, I kept licking my fingers when the cream cheese icing leaked and dribbled from the paper cone. By the time, I decorated the cake, I was rather sugared out.

The birthday

Sean was so excited about his 'Rex cake' and wanted to eat it early in the morning, but I kept telling him to wait for evening when Ama comes home. He loved the marshmallows on the cake but didn't eat the cake. Seriously, no one at home like to eat cake, not even Sean. Except me and the maid. So it's a good thing, the cake is small.

Daddy cooked meatballs, spaghetti and tomato sauce, and french fries. He ate french fries, meatball without the sauce and marshmallows. *You need to eat more, Sean!*

By the time evening came, he was more subdued, and when I asked him much later, he said he was sad that his friends, Kai and Eason, were not there. I guess he thought he was going to have a big birthday party. Actually, I don't know what he thought, but maybe that's what he thought. I hope he enjoys the birthday at playgroup tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Sean!

The letter B, the color yellow and the number 2

Sean was stuck with the letter A, the color Red and the number one for the longest time. All he wanted to do was paint the letter A in red paint and he only wanted 1 of everything.

I think about 1 or 2 weeks ago, he decided his favorite color is now yellow, and his favorite letter is the letter B and he wants everything in twos.

Someone passed me a link to this great website a long time ago, it list down a lesson plan that you want to do with your child from1 years old. I didn't do anything then but I've recently dug it up and taken a look at it. I'm grateful for the people who puts up free lessons online, they are a great source of ideas. This is the link : http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html

I'm not following everything that is recommended yet, but I thought I'll start with borrowing books following a theme, i.e. letter of the week is....

Since Sean is very decided on letter B, I thought this was a good time to start this. I borrowed books from the B section, which made it simpler for me to look for books. I could only find one of the recommended book for letter B, but I think the idea is about introducing as many things that start with the letter B. So I just borrowed books that talk about things that start with the letter B.

Since he started playing games online, he hasn't been interested in reading as much, but this week, all I had to do was ask, " Do you want to read a B book?" So far, it's been working this week, we shall see how long this works and whether or not I can actually follow the recommended lesson with Sean.

I've started a new blog. At the moment it's just a list of books we are currently reading and links of YouTube videos we are watching. The blog is called Today, I learn about