The "V" Word

Eversince she recovered from her stomach flu, Clarissa has been saying a lot of the "v" word. Which "v" word you may asked.... well.... "V" for vomit....

I think she vomitted so many times that she seems to have phobia on it. Of course, I also think mainly because when she was sick, she was treated like a queen, where she can gets away with everything. For example, everything that she doesn't like to do, she doesn't have to do it. I guess all parents do give face to their kids when they are sick. But, we sometimes forget how clever and manupulative our kids are. One good example is my dear daughter, who has recovered from her sickness since last Monday, but up to date, when she doesn't want to eat something or thinks she can get away from school, she will tell me she has stomachache and wants to vomit. And being a real drama queen, she can really act like she was in pain, crunching her tummy and covering her mouth as though the puke is going to come out anytime. But just show her something that interests her and she will forget all about the pain and vomit in one second :)

Not only she tried her trick on me, she also tried it on her class teacher. After the first day the teacher allowed her to rest, she tried to do the same thing the next day. Luckily for me (unluckily for her) her teacher are smarter than she thought. So instead of allowing her to have her way, she told her she can go vomit after she finished the work that she asked her to do. This is because her teacher told me she noticed that everytime she asked her to do some work, she will say she wants to vomit.

Few days ago, hubby and me bought her a pair of hamsters as pet. In exchange, I banned her from saying the "v" word, and true enough, the pair of hamsters were able to distract her from saying that. As the saying goes, you are smart but Mommy is not stupid either :P

Special tribute to Dr Foo Ong Pin of SJMC

Last night, Clarissa got me worried as she started vomiting non-stop from about 8pm. In the end, at about 1am in the morning, we decided to take her to the hospital, as she was also complaining of severe tummy ache which has never happened before. Luckily the doctor diagnosed her of stomach flu only, and it was supposed to be nothing serious. But the doctor did say that if the vomiting and tummy ache does not stop, then I will need to bring her back today.

She does feel slightly better today, but as I had never taken her to this hospital before, I was not 100% confident that they are correct. So, when she still complained that she has tummy ache this morning, I decided to call her pediatrician, Dr Foo, who has been attending to her since birth. And that brought me to a very sad finding. I was told by the hospital that Dr Foo had passed away in June. I was in total shock (even until now), because he has always been such a healthy and rosy cheeked man in his fifties. 

Needless to say, the hospital will not reveal on how or why he passed away, so I decided to google on him, and found out that he died of pancreatic cancer after a short battle. I would not say I am close to him or what, but I cannot help feeling a sense of deep lost, that such a talented and kind doctor has to leave the world so soon. 

He is one of the only doctor that Clarissa has no problem visiting every single time. Not because he has a lot of toys in his room, but he had never failed to give her a kiss every single time she visited him. He will always greet her with a smile the moment she stepped into his room asking - "How are you Clarissa?" Everytime after he was done with the examination, he never failed to ask us, the parents, if we have any other concerns. And if I have other queries, like whether she can travel at young age, or I find some unusual things on her, all I need to do is call his clinic and he will definitely answer and make me feel calm again. Most of the time, I bet he did not even remember who we are, but he will still treats my child with concern and care, all out of genuine sincerity. In this current materialistic world, how many doctors would have done or behaved this way? 

I am deeply saddened by the news of his demised, and that Clarissa would never have the chance to see her "favorite doctor" (as how she fondly calls him) ever again. I am glad that during her last visit to him, which if I remember correctly was somewhere beginning of the year, that I told him Clarissa said - "Dr Foo is my favorite doctor" - and he was very happy about it. 

You may not remember all your patients, but all your patients will definitely remember you of your gentle manner, calm composure and kindness. May you rest in peace Dr Foo Ong Pin of SJMC.

You don't understand English ah, huh???

These days, a lot of times when I asked Clarissa to do something for me, or not to do something naughty, she will ignores me completely. Sometimes I got so irritated and I will tell her - "Clarissa, didn't I say not to do this? Why are you still doing it? You don't understand English?" Still, she will ignore until I threaten to punish her :)

Little did I realise that she has been absorbing everything I told her.... The other day, she came into the room to tell me something interesting she saw on TV. I could not make out what she was saying, despite her repeating it a few times. In the end, she was very frustrated and she told me this - "Mommy, you don't understand English ah, HUH?HUH? HUH?" (Have to repeat the "Huh" 3 times somemore). I was so amused at her question! But I wasn't stupid enough to keep quiet, so I told her -"Mommy understands English, but not YOUR English!" And this was exactly her reply, when I said the same thing about her not understanding English yesterday.

Luckily she could not understand or speak Cantonese, otherwise God knows what she will be telling me after listening to me talking to her aunties & Daddy :-P

First Homework

Today, Clarissa did her first homework given by the school. I can't believe she is old enough to be doing homework so soon. Or should I say, I can't believe my little baby has grown this fast to be doing homework already. 

 

It is just 3 pieces of simple work, which she has to write and color during the Hari Raya holidays. Mommy is proud that she managed to sit through the "homework session" with me, and finished 2 out of the 3 pages. She is just 4 years old, so I can understand that her concentration is very limited. I allowed her to finish the 1st piece first (which already took 30 minutes) and rest for 20 minutes before we started the 2nd page. She told me she will do the last page tomorrow and I agreed to it, because I believe sitting still for almost an hour is already her limits, especially for my Clarissa, where concentrating on doing one thing for long has always been difficult for her. 

 

And I am proud to present her work in the pictures above. It may not be a fantastic coloring job, but coming from my little girl, Mommy thinks it is the best, because I knew she tried her best, and that is what is important.