Little Miss Chatterbox

M’s language skills has been developing very fast ever since she turned 3. She has no problem communicating her feelings and needs most of the time. At the same time, her character and individualism is showing up more now, like acquiring her own sense of humour.

Just last night, after she finished her milk feed before bedtime, she covered her mouth with the bottle’s cap and pointed her empty bottle at us, shouting “Fire!” She was pretending to be a fire-fighter. It was amusing but I tried to control my laughter as I did not want her to do it. I kept saying “Cover your bottle, I don’t want your milk to drip out!” But I guess control our laughter gave us away and she kept doing it. Then she asked us “Is it funny?”

She’s surprising us more and more with what she says. Recently, while we were waiting for Matt to get food at a food court, she was watching a cleaner clear a table nearby. She said “Mummy, this auntie is very sad.” I was pleasantly surprised she was able to observe the cleaner’s mood and took the chance to explain that a cleaner’s job is very tough and that we should keep the tables clean to make their job easier. Towards the end of the meal, she noticed another cleaner and said “This uncle is not sad.” This time, it was a male cleaner who did not look as tired and jaded as the one we saw earlier.

Besides expressing her thoughts and feelings more openly now, she is definitely more demanding of late. And we can’t even feign ignorance anymore. She is even capable of telling us when she’s unhappy with us! Managing her expectations and demands is a big challenge for us now and it’s somewhat different from the ‘terrible twos’ issues because then, they are still not able to fully express themselves. I guess this challenge is not going to get any easier as she grows older.

Anyway, we’re enjoying her even more now. It’s such a joy hearing her talk about her day at school. She even imitates the way some teachers talk. Sometimes, she’ll keep talking at bedtime because she doesn’t want us to leave her room.

She certainly knows her stuff!

Full-day or half-day?

That’s the question I’ve been asking myself almost on a daily basis now. We started M on the full-day programme at Schoolhouse by the Garden in March when I had my surgery and it’s coming to 2 months. I feel about 80% now and I believe another month should be enough for me to feel 100%, or maybe 95%.

Question now is do we switch M back to the half-day programme after that? That was our original plan. But she seems so well-adjusted to the full-day programme that I wonder if she would display any resistance to the switch. One other big consideration is of course, cost. Since I’m not a working mum, I am not entitled to the $300 childcare subsidy offered by MCYS to working mums. Our subsidy is capped at $150 and the full-day programme costs us $680 a month.

That leads us to the next question – Should I get a job so we qualify for that $300 subsidy? This is a much harder question to answer. Depending on the nature of the job, there is bound to be logistical issues we need to iron out. Although one would only need to work 56 hours to qualify as a working mum under MCYS’s regulation, such jobs are hard to come by. Somehow, Singapore has just not caught on in the aspect of flexible work and job sharing. Most jobs I would consider are still offered on a full-time basis – about 160 hours a month (assume 8 hours a day and 20 working days a month).

Friends have suggested I be a property agent, insurance agent or financial advisor, tuition teacher or even cashier or sales staff at retail or F&B stores. I’m really not sure. I really enjoy the luxury of time I have currently. M can take forever to get ready for school on some days and I can afford to be patient in coaxing her because I’m not rushing for work. Then in the afternoons, I can pick her up as early as 4.30pm so we still have some time together before dinner preparations and we do not need to rush through the evenings.

Ultimately, most pin it down to money – Can we afford this lifestyle? Because time is really money!

Our plastic way of life

It’s amazing how plastic has crept into our lives. In fact, I cannot imagine life without it anymore. Recently, an article I read in the April 12 issue of the TIME magazine – ‘The Perils of Plastic’ by Bryan Walsh made me re-think the use of plastic in our home. The content of the article is not new, essentially about the danger of various chemicals from the wide use of plastic in our lives can pose a danger to us, especially young children. But we really need these reminders from time to time.

The picture of two kids in front of their bowls of cereal and a jug of drink struck me how our decisions as parents can make a difference in our children’s future. Plastic has been really useful, especially for parents of young children who love to throw their toys, milk bottles and utensils around. I recall when I first heard about the danger of the chemical, bisphenol A (BPA) sometime in 2008, BPA free milk bottles were not even available in most retail stores.

Some people I know switched to glass bottles but I did not. Reason being we had stopped sterilizing M’s bottles by then and since BPA can leak into milk only at high temperatures, I did not see a need to switch. Also, M was able to hold her own bottle while drinking and she has a tendency to throw her bottle around after that. Above all, I could not be sure all her drinking and eating utensils were BPA free too, especially when we eat out or pack food home.

But reading the article and all the potential danger of chemicals such as PVC and BPA, I can’t help wondering if that is still the right decision. BPA is a synthetic estrogen that can cause potentially cause serious reproductive problems for females. According to the article, Canada and Denmark are the only countries to have banned BPA milk bottles.

At the same time, manufacturers have responded and BPA free milk and drinking bottles are now more widely available, though at around 30-50% price premium. I’ve even noticed some toys labelled PVC and PBA free. The question that comes often to my mind is – Is it really necessary? Well, it’s an answer that will perhaps take governments a lot longer to answer because producers of the chemicals will argue that they are safe in small amounts.

But like mentioned in the article, thresholds can be a really tricky question. As consumers, we often have to make decisions without the full set of information. I looked around our home to see how we can minimise M’s exposure of these dangerous chemicals and I have the feeling it’s not going to be an easy task.

Nonetheless, I took the first step of getting her BPA free milk bottles!

Living on drugs…

If it’s difficult having a sick child at home, it’s worse when both parent and child are sick. Last week, my sore throat turned into a bad cough. In fact, I cough just like M and it’s driving Matt crazy having to take care of us both. Needless to say, visits to the doctors became our most frequent outings.

M’s on-and-off cough has now gone on for months and it’s really tiring us out. We’re trying both western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) but things seem to be progressing too slowly. We actually made an appointment for M to get a skin prick test at KK but was not able to do it because she had some anti-histamine couple of days ago. The test has been rescheduled to 3 months later and we went home with 3 months worth of an anti-allergic drug – ketotifen.

Coughing now is umpteen times more painful (around my abdomen area) than usual because of my surgery. I almost have to crouch down every time I cough to minimise the pain. I even wonder if my wound might rupture because it can get so painful!

Just can’t wait to get well!