madmoneymonkey

2nd day of the new year and I made another booboo as a mummy. Oh dear, I pray this is not going to be a trend!

Elliot seems to have gotten my seafood allergy, a few days ago, he broke out in rashes, we suspect because of some fish sauce that he had in a dish. The next day, he had fish porridge that made him blow up in angry rashes all over his body. It since went down after some Zyrtec.

It is the same allergy as I have so from experience, we have been keeping him off seafood for these few days. He finally seemed to be getting better so I brought him out today, without Merv who had gone off to play soccer. (It seems I'm dangerous without Merv!)

I brought Ellie for Japanese food because one of his favourite foods is sushi. I ordered him a kids meal that came in a lovely bear box and came with sushi and udon and fruit. When ordering, I was very careful to ask to change the crabstick sushi to cucumber and egg sushi. We ate happily.

When we met up with Merv, Ellie started fussing and scratching his legs. The rashes came back! When Merv asked me what I fed him, I listed the stuff out and he looked at me incredibly, "UDON?? They use dashi stock! Made from dried fish, the worst enemy!!"

Argh. I completely forgot about the seemingly innocent stock. Sigh. The rashes are back all over his legs again. I really really need to be more careful!! Ack ack ack!!

First day of the new year and I experienced one of the most harrowing things a mum could possibly go through - I lost Elliot in a shopping mall.

Just typing that makes me shiver a little. We were at the Guardian Pharmacy in Great World City. Merv went off to do some work at our pasta counter and asked me to take care of Ellie. I walked into Guardian carrying Ellie. Halfway through, my arm was very tired from carrying him so I told him I'd have to put him down and he would have to walk. He refused of course, and proceeded to sit down on the floor. I refused to carry him so I counted to 3 and started to walk off, expecting him to follow. But he didn't. So I turned the corner and went back up the other aisle so I would be behind him. When I reached the end of the aisle, he was still sitting there on the floor, not fussing but just looking around. As I peeped at him, he suddenly looked in my direction so I ducked behind the shelves. When I looked back up, to my absolute horror, he was gone!!! It was just like a split second! I ran out and looked around and he was nowhere to be seen!!

I frantically ran around looking for him up and down the aisles, then ran out to Cold Storage to try and look for him, shouting his name and asking everyone around if they had seen him. It was so so so scary because I started to wonder if he had been taken away since it happened so quickly and it's not like he can run very fast.

I quickly called Merv to help me look and he instructed me to stand at the exits of Cold Storage to wait to see if anyone came out with Ellie while he combed the aisles at Cold Storage. But me, being all frantic, couldn't possibly stand still and just wait, I ran up and down, asking more people if they had seen him. Even got myself scolded by one of the aunties for not watching him properly. I was absolutely frantic, thinking that someone had taken him away and they might sell him off, OMG, I wanted to die.

Suddenly, I saw Merv walking back from outside Cold Storage carrying Ellie, who was hugging him really tight. That's when the floodgates opened and I started crying in relief while hugging my little boy SO tight.

Turns out, he ran into Cold Storage and got lost. He started crying and was picked up by a caucasian lady who tried to look for his parents. When she couldn't find us, she brought him to the information counter upstairs to report him missing and even bought him a Barney balloon to stop him from crying. God bless this kind woman.

After reporting him, she carried him back down to Cold Storage and that was when Merv heard his cries and ran after them and got our little boy back.

What a horrid experience, I felt utterly helpless and scared and it was just horrid to think that I would have lost him and he wouldn't have had any way to telling people where his parents were or worse even, if he had met bad people. OMG.

I quickly said a prayer of thanks to God for bringing him back and for sending the wonderful lady who took care of him. No more walking away without him, next time, I'll carry him even if my arm breaks. Bad mummy.

Blessed Christmas everyone! With much love from the Phans. Merv is cooking dinner for the family tonight, just like old times! Can't wait to post pictures of the yummy dinner, just like old times too! :)

Teaching Elliot and watching him grow is such an amazing thing. He is really a little boy now, with a mind of his own and with a (big) will of his own.

Since young, he has always had a strong will, if he wanted something, he would want it right away. He could hardly wait for anything, and seldom could be bribed to do something in return for something else (except maybe for Wiggles and food). But each day, I am learning more about what makes him tick and I'm sure he is learning about me too.

On Thursday, I got a classic lesson on parenting him.

He was walking around when he spied his stash of diapers tucked beside the piano. For some strange reason, he decided to pull out all the diapers and throw them ALL AROUND. When I saw it, I was so annoyed and in classic Mummy mode, thought "I better correct this behaviour right away!"

So I firmly told him, "NO, ELLIOT. Pick up the diapers and put them back." He refused and tried to run away. So I quickly pulled him back and placed him in front of the diapers again and told him to pick it up. Again refused. This kept going on until I was shouting, he was screaming and crying and kicking back trying to escape my grip. But the more he tried to run, the harder I pulled him back because again, I couldn't let him get away with that sort of behaviour. It was quite a scene.

Finally, VERY RELUCTANTLY, he picked up 1 diaper and put it back when it belonged before running to me for a hug. I hugged him to me and said 'Good job. Mummy likes it when you pick up after yourself."

Then immediately with no fuss at all, he went to pick up all the other diapers strewn around and obediently put them back where they belonged before coming back for another hug. Such a difference.

God help me to have the patience and wisdom in teaching my toddler, to know when to use which tactic with him and to always admonish him with love and patience and not because of pride or because my classic mummy mode kicks in. It's really not easy, this parenting thing!

After speaking to Cindy about teaching our children, I was inspired to do something for Ellie tomorrow. I made up this easel and gonna make him match the colorful letters to his written name.



Hope he cooperates! :)

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Congrats to my lovely cousin Beverly on the announcement of her baby-to-be!! I'm gonna be an aunt and I've never been more excited! I cannot wait to cradle my new nephew/niece very soon, I'm sure he/she will be gorgeous!

Don't worry Bev, I'll make sure Ellie will take good care of your little one and not bully him/her!

*hugs and many much loveeeee*

It's July again and that means Cookyn with Mervyn is turning 1! Woohoo, can't imagine how far we have come in 1 year, quite amazing stuff, and we look back in wonder.

One of the joys that we have is meeting likeminded food lovers and becoming friends with them. Seeing them come back and enjoying themselves is such a happy thing for us. I am always so happy to see familiar names appear on my booking list. And just yesterday, we received a bouquet of flowers and a cake from a couple that we met at Cookyn, they sent it over in celebration of our 1st anniversary, so sweet!!! *wipes tear* I am so touched that people remember us and are celebrating with us. LOVE!

Also, we are running a crazy little anniversary contest just for the fun of it. It's a photo contest on facebook titled 'I'd rather be Cookyn'. Background behind that is some people write to us occasionally and say that they miss Cookyn during their daily lives so we thought we'd have some fun with that thought. At first we thought we'd do a 'favourite Cookyn moments' contest but I think our people are more creative than that, so we'll make it more fun, especially since the prize is 1 year, 6 months and 1 free Cookyn session for the 1st to 5th winners! Please support our contest by going to www.facebook.com/cookynwithmervyn to enter! Looooooooking forward to seeing your entries ah!!!

I'm posting here again because I cannot be on Facebook or Twitter. We had to put Ellie to bed at around 10 and taped the England-Germany match. Now as we are watching the delayed telecast, the scores and comments are already coming through Facebook/Twitter. Isn't it amazing how things have changed in 2 years? I don't remember getting such flood of updates about soccer in the Euro 2 years ago, nor the World Cup 4 years ago.

But the real winners of the World Cup are the fast food chains with home delivery. They win hands down!

This is such a disjointed post, more suitable for facebook than on livejournal. Heh.

We had an awesome time at Church camp this year. The messages by Pastor Chua Chung Kai were reflective, personal and God's word struck deeply in my heart. Despite missing 2 of the 4 messages taking care of Ellie (thank God for Mum who took the other 2), I was moved by the messages I did sit in for. I am going to take steps to read God's word more regularly.

Now after we have gotten back from camp, I (and what must be more than 50% of the campers) am down with a bad flu bug that was making its way around the entire camp. I woke up this morning to chills and aches and feeling terribly under the weather. But I am feeling much better now because of the medication that I got from the doctor. It brings to mind immediately a part of the sermon where Pastor Kai said people have asked him whether he prays or takes medicines when he is sick. His answer? "Do both lar! Why must be so exclusive? God can heal with or without medicine, with or without prayer, with or without surgery, with or without chemotherapy." So thank God for medicines.

We also had a swell time spending every moment with our little boy, who is really not all that little anymore. Everyone who asked how old he was, all shook their heads and said 'ah, the terrible twos are coming!'

I am already beginning to see the start of the terrible twos with the way Ellie asserts himself and makes it very clear what he likes/wants or does not like/want. He has also started to hit other children when they take away his toys or just come too near. It is very distressing when that happens, I pray with him every morning that he will be more gentle with his friends and teach him to touch others more gently. He tries to follow but somehow cannot resist the urge and will lash out in a split second if someone comes into his personal space. Needs more more work.

Yet at the same time, it is amazing to see his personality emerge, he loves some things but doesn't like others. He LOVES music and attempts to sing along to his nursery rhymes, he loves Wiggles and dances along with them (he says 'ggle, ggle' all the time, even in his sleep!). He also loves to 'play' imaginary instruments along to songs which is the cutest thing ever. Mummy and him often form a 'band' where I play piano and he blows a trumpet or the assortment of imaginary instruments he has. Cuteness.

He doesn't like books that much, especially the written word. He loves pictures and flaps and textures but immediately closes the book when I try to read words to him. Not so much of a scholar that one.

I love how after 4 days, I can read his signals so much better and can preempt his needs and wants. A mummy's intuition I suppose. He is now equally affectionate with Merv and me, which is awesome seeing how he used to only want Merv to carry him and push me away. Now he goes 'mum mum' and leans over to me, so nice. :)

I love this little boy of ours! But at the same time, Merv and I got some alone time every night because Dad would come over in the night to watch Ellie when Merv and I drove out to town to buy water and supper, had Ramly burgers every night! Super unnutritious but it is proper heart-stopping holiday food. LOL.

( Pictures of our trip! )