Just like many families who didn’t go out of the city over the Easter weekend, we found ourselves at the mall on Saturday. It was not one of the most perfect times to go as there were throngs of people but we still found ourselves enjoying each other’s company and the sights to see. That was, until our little boy started throwing a fit because he wanted some Coke before dinner. Of course, mommy said no – he can have a glass after the meal. It would have been fine except that an uncle went ahead and bought himself a can. Little boy then started whining and comparing his uncle.

So how did we handle this? The way we usually do it is to give calm explanations. Children are quite rational if you get them used to it from the outset. Yesterday, though, it didn’t work immediately. Little boy kept whining and asking for a Coke. I decided to ignore him. After a while it stopped and we had dinner in peace – with two glasses of Coke afterwards.

Did I do the right thing? Should we ignore our children’s bad behavior? Tammy Daniele in Parenting Coach suggests doing so. However, she emphasizes that we should not ignore the CHILD but ignore the BEHAVIOR instead. She goes on to say that: A simple statement that sends the message that you, as a parent, are not going to respond to certain behaviors and will not respond until a more suitable behavior is being displayed.

I totally agree. How about you?

I think this has happened to countless parents out there. You have a girl (or several) and you have a boy. At some point in his life, he starts adoring his sister/s or his mom and then he starts acting like them to a certain degree. I was talking to a cousin of mine over the Christmas holidays and he was complaining about his only son acting like a girl, so I observed him during our time together.

He loved to dance – not the manly moves that we see male dancers make. He wanted to prance and float around like a little ballerina. He would ask for dresses and ribbons. He even went as far as to say things such as “I am a princess!”

My cousin was understandably alarmed at all this. Should he be, really? As I continued to keep an eye on my nephew, I noticed that behind all the princess act, the little boy was still there. Sure he would dance around but he couldn’t resist making scary moves to frighten the girls. When playing with dolls, he could be as gentle as the girls but his inner nature would come out and a head or limb would suddenly snap.

This is what I told my cousin – some little boys do go through this stage, especially if their role model is a female. I remember another kid in our neighborhood who was exactly like this. He was “gay” around 6 and 7 years old and now, he is the toughest guy you can ever meet.

I think that you should not totally discourage boys when the start acting like this. It could be a good thing, actually. They keep in touch with their feminine side. Of course, you have to have talks that will help him distinguish gender – if that is what you want. What do you think?

You really can’t blame O for what happened. The past few weeks I’ve been letting him play on my husband’s laptop, where he discovered the joys of the Teletubbies site. You see, he would watch his big sister N as she expertly lead Stephanie to defeat Robbie Rotten in the Lazytown (Nick Jr) site, or dressed Ken in the funkiest outfits at Barbie’s online home.

He would sit next to her quietly on our large office swivel chair, seemingly more interested than he was with his usual Elmo or Blues Clues morning shows. So I thought, why not let him try it himself?

Well, between the Thomas and Friends, Teletubbies and Sesame Street sites, he was hooked, toddling each morning after breakfast to the laptop, saying: “Mommy, games!”

Not so good for my home work schedule, but I thought it was harmless in itself until last night. I was answering emails, and he was on my bed, watching Barney Goes To School as his sister was in the bath. N shouted out for me, so I quickly went to her, leaving O alone, with the laptop open on the desk.

When I got back to the room, two minutes later, I saw, to my horror, that more than half of the laptop keys were GONE. Plucked off. And there was O looking quite pleased with himself, with the missing keys piled neatly on the desk.

Just recently we had spent an obscene amount of money getting a new LCD screen for this Mac laptop, so you can imagine my reaction when I saw what he’d done. Not a proud I’m-a-Mom-in-control moment, but more like a hysterical i’m-a-horrible-mom thing. So there were obviously a lot of tears (no violence though, I assure you), of which I felt terribly guilty about later.

Luckily, the kind man at our local computer shop was able to put all but one key back on, but I can confirm that for now, at least, O’s online exploits are on hold. At least until the terrible twos are over.

What is it about germs that make them spread like wildfire, especially with kids? While we were at hospital Dr.J warned me to try and refrain from getting too close to O, and not kissing him or sharing drinks, food and so on. Was she insane? Did she think I would stay at an arm’s length of my son who was in hospital for the first time? Bring on the outbreak and let me kiss my baby.

By the next morning, O had started to recover fast. After finishing his bowl of clear soup, he moved on to some white bread (I made the exception because of the circumstances), and by lunchtime, he was up and about, roaming the pediatric ward while I held his I.V. drip.

Big sis came to visit with Grandma, and despite more stay-away warnings from Dr.J, she promptly jumped into the hospital bed with her little brother (to his delight!) snuggeling to watch the Playhouse Disney channel, which we don’t get at home. Being the affectionate (well, sometime) bis sister that she is, I think she felt sorry for her little brother (with a needle and tube stuck on his hand, no less) and wouldn’t stop hugging and kissing him. When it was time for Grandma to take her to lunch at the mall she refused to leave and eventually was persuaded to go downstairs to the hospital cafeteria.

By the following day, you can guess what happened. O was nearly back to his old cheery self, my daughter was vomiting and I had diarrhea.

[tags]outbreak, hospital, virus[/tags]

Like they say, theres a first time for everything, and it was the first time for me to have one one of my children be admitted to hospital. We were lucky, I suppose, as the pediatric floor was initally full, and Dr.J told us we’d have to head for the emergency room until a bed became vacant. A few minutes before we left the house, however, she texted me to say to head straight for the admissions desk, as a room was now available. I was about as chuffed as one could be when their child is about to be admitted to hospital. Relieved that we wouldnt be spending a good part of the night at the emergency room, but still feeling pretty anxious.

The pediatric ward was the same as all the other hospital floors, except for colourful animal signs as the room numbers (ours was a panda), and a cheery-looking playroom which unfortunately had a forbidding sign taped on the door saying “closed for general cleaning”. Hurumph. My sister helped us check in and get sorted in the room (hubby is abroad - dang! of all times when I could do with husbandly support), and within minutes the resident doctor and some nurses came in to see my little O.

Weak as ever, O was a dream when they put in the i.v. drip, with hardly any complaining except for a small cry when the needle went in (this impressed the doctors who were expecting the usual struggle at this particular floor). Within minutes he was fast asleep. Probably from the sheer exhaustion of the day, poor thing. I was pretty beat myself, so after a quick trip to the basement cafeteria for some supplies, I watched American Idol until I fell asleep only to be awoken by a nurse two hours later.

[tags]sick kids, hospital, pediatric ward[/tags]

If you have a little boy, you’ll probably understand the relation betweeen Christmas shopping and fulfilling your child’s obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine. Ever since my boy O started to take an interest in toys, it was Thomas the whole way. Unlike my daughter, who enjoyed those colourful, apparently “smart” and un-cheap baby toys from Lamaze and Manhattan Toy, my son ignored all that and only wanted trains - Thomas, to be precise.

That was about a year ago, fast forward to today, and at 22 months, his penchant for all things Thomas has escalated to a normal (yes, it is!!) obsession. So, the indulgent Mom I am, have taken it upon myself to go the full whack and purchase the wooden sets plus table (as seen in picture above) for Christmas.

As those wooden sets are hideously expensive ( but the quality is fine, let me assure you, and will no doubt last for many many years!!- I hope), I’ve am having the table made by our carpenter/handyman, who actually just built our dogs a veritable mansion in the yard, complete with veranda. So, a toy train table shouldnt be too difficult?????

I have never actually bought toys online, preferring to go to our local toy stores and seeing what the kids naturally gravitate to throughout the year. However, for this Thomas project, I did find myself checking out what was there online, as some Moms had alrealy beat me to the retail outlets and supply was getting thin.

Here are some of the websites with the best selections for all things Thomas (still havent tried them out though, so on purchase and delivery I really cant say). Click on the words to link:

Thomas the Tank Engine Store

Totally Thomas

Thomas Station

[tags]Christmas, Holidays, Christmas gifts, Thomas Tank Engine[/tags]

Yesterday morning after I took my daughter to Kindergarten, I was busy answering my emails when O toddled to my desk. He often does this when he sees me on my laptop, and most of the time (if I don’t have any deadlines to meet), I indulge him by going to the Thomas the Tank Engine or Bob the Builder sites. If his big sister is around, she play games while he watches, and fun seems to be had by all.

Anyway, for some reason, I was in You Tube, and somehow, we found the video “Manamana” as you see pictured above. Its a vintage Sesame Street/Muppets clip (wasn’t I just talking about this?) from the 70’s, and involves a very catchy tune “sung” by the two pink creatures (birds?) and the caveman-esque chap with the shades. It is absolutely delightful!

Well, O LOVED it, and just kept on cracking up when the caveman would pop up saying “manamana”. For what seemed like ages, we watched the clip over and over again, which eventually prompted me to sign up at the site and get more into memory lane by searching for more clips from the childhood, of which I found a couple of gems - “Eleven O’Clock!” and the clown who takes his makeup off. Hurrah!

When N got home from school, O just had to show her “anama!”, which she LOVED as well.
They watched it again first thing this morning, and now N wants them to sing it at out family Christmas party on Christmas Eve. Guess who’ll have to be one of the pink furry creatures?

To see the video, click HERE.

[tags]Muppets, manamana, Sesame Street,childhood[/tags]

The daring parents we are, we’ve now taken our two kids to Thailand for a family holiday. As my husband had some work to attend to in the region, we decided to meet up in Bangkok and fly down to Koh Samui for a two week holiday.

And even more daring, I think, is that I flew solo with a 21-month-old and 4 year-old to Bangkok. To make things worse, my 21-month-old came down with a raging fever that very morning we were leaving, promptly vomiting on me (twice) in the car on the way to the airport. A very important lesson in travel with kids (and perhaps the single most important thing to do) - bring more than 2 sets of extra clothes (this means for Mom as well)!! The longer the journey and the younger the child, add an extra shirt or two, or be doomed to buying something hideously ill-fitting or overpriced at the duty free when you touch down.

After a frenzied call to Dr.J, who assured me that the show must go on and that a cold with fever is no big deal, we arrived at the airport, got through airport security, made it through to the plane, and finally arrived in Bangkok. The plane journey turned out to be pretty painless actually, my little girl was thrilled with her window seat, headset and kid’s meal saying “Mom, this is the best ever!, can I always have food like this?”, and amazingly, my little boy slept most of the way through.

Upon arrival, the flight attendant informed me that our stroller would NOT be available until the baggage carousel (grrrr), which was a real nightmare if you have ever been to the new airport in Bangkok and know how many miles you have to walk until you reach the baggage claim.

After a seemingly endless number of those flat escalator thingies (sorry I just cant remember what they’re called), going through immigration (I think the Thai police pitied us with my son screaming in line and opened a desk just for us to stop upsetting the other travellers) and getting our bags (which came out last, of course), it was the most wonderful feeling of all seeing my husband at the greeting area while my kids screamed Dada! and with a sigh of relief, I handed the stroller over to him.

[tags]Travel with children,Kids travel,Asia,Thailand,Koh Samui,Air travel with kids[/tags]

Upon hearing the unsettling news of my kids’s condition (my four-year-old was
also developing the rash and complaining of “owies” in her mouth), I dutifully rang my friend M, whose kids were scheduled to come to my place that afternoon for playgroup.

Funnily enough, she was really cool about the entire “Hand Foot Mouth” thing, and said her kids probably had it too by now so another day wouldnt make a difference anyway, so would it be ok if they came over as planned? Oh, ok then.

But for Moms who are probably more OC about hygene like I am ( and I can name a couple), it pays to know how to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

Here’s what I found, also useful for any other infectious disease our kids are exposed to in this big wide world of ours, courtesy of the National Center For Infectious Diseases:

“Specific prevention for HFMD or other non-polio enterovirus infections is not available, but the risk of infection can be lowered by good hygienic practices. Preventive measures include frequent handwashing, especially after diaper changes (see “Handwashing” in: An Ounce of Prevention: Keeps the Germs Away), cleaning of contaminated surfaces and soiled items first with soap and water, and then disinfecting them by diluted solution of chlorine-containing bleach (made by mixing approximately � cup of bleach with 1 gallon of water. Avoidance of close contact (kissing, hugging, sharing utensils, etc.) with children with HFMD may also help to reduce of the risk of infection to caregivers.”

[tags]Hand foot mouth disease,infectious diseases children, kids health, coxackie[/tags]

My sincere apologies for the disturbing images, but sadly this is what I’ve been faced with lately. You see, my two kids were just diagnosed with Coxackie virus, otherwise known as Hand Foot Mouth disease. And, NO it has nothing to do with the mad cow thing (Foot and Mouth)- which I had to reassure my husband of vehemently when I told him the news.

It all started when I noticed some strange, blistery, pimply spots on my son’s hands and feet. When it didn’t disappear in a day (as many of these rashes do), I dutifully visited our pediatrician Dr. J, thinking she might as well check it out since he was due for a shot anyway.

One look and she told me he had HFM disease, which was obvious as he also had another big symptom - losing his appetite lately with solid food and saying “owie” when he ate. When Dr.J that it was no big deal (in spite of its rather sketchy name), fairly common in babies and young children, and self-limiting (read: no meds necessary except for paracetamol in case of fever, which neither of my kids got), I honestly felt more “ICK” than anything else, especially when I realized that this icky virus was probably spreading among the kids at school, playgroup or even at Gymboree. Ick!!

Dr.J then advised me to tell the Moms and teachers that my kids had (gulp) “it”, and to keep them away from other kids for another 5 days or so as it was HIGHLY contagious. Although, contagious kids may never even develop symptoms, or just have some of them.

[tags]Hand foot mouth disease,coxackie virus,kids disease,kids health[/tags]