My poor baby is sick :(

Kendrick fell ill over the weekend and this is actually the first time that he caught a virus and had the fever and runs. I'm not sure how it happened, but it started on Friday when I was on off and looking after him at home. I noticed that he seemed to cough in the morning slightly and it sounded a bit 'phlegmy'. I started to suspect something might not be right. He also seemed a little bit more listless. Tried to take his temperature but could not successfully do so as he kept fidgeting. (We did not have the ear thermometer at that point). Kendrick's appetite also started to drop this week when he refused to drink finish most of his milk feeds. But I guess it did not really occur much to me except that he's back to his milk rejection again.

By evening, I was convinced that we should bring him to the doctor as I did not like the sound of his cough. Fortunately we went. Kendrick was running a fever at 38.4 degrees. Doctor advised that it's a viral infection which meant that his fever could go up and down over the next few days. He had some phlegm stuck in his throat too which induces his cough. Got some medicine and we went home. Friday night was the hardest to go through - Kendrick certainly did not sleep well in the night. He took quite long to fall asleep and when he did, he woke almost every hour crying. Dear and I were rather tired by his irrational crying but it must only be because he was in great discomfort or pain. He finally slept longer after 2plus am and woke again at 6plus am crying slightly again. Felt that he was pretty warm so we quickly gave him another dose of paracetamol and sponged him. After that, Kendrick managed to fall back asleep till 9plus in the morning.

On Saturday, his fever continued to go up and down. But otherwise, Kendrick was pretty much ok, playing about and walking around in the house. He was like his usual self just that his voice seemed affected by the phlegm in his throat. Everyone in the family was really concerned about his bout of sickness! On Saturday night, he slept much better as the fever was much lower. By Sunday, he was much better and the fever seemed to come only once in the day. It was only the cough and phlegm that remains to affect Kendrick. Gosh, really pray that he will recover fast!! So sad to see him sick! He seemed to have lost some weight in just a few days.. :(

This episode has also shown me that it is not only tiring on the child to be sick, it is also tiring on the parents to have to shower the extra care and concern and comfort to the sick child. It is truly a learning experience for me and I admit that I still need to have more and greater patience with my son. Hope that Kendrick will recover well and gain back his appetite. Mummy and Daddy love you always....

16 months old

Kendrick turned 16 months old about 1.5 weeks ago but I kinda forgot to make an entry about it, so here I am writing this now. Here are some things we've noticed in Kendrick's development so far:

Physical / Motor skills

• Beginning to show some signs of wanting to run. Kendrick has been walking steadily for many months already, but lately he seems to walk quite fast at times and it seems like he wants to move towards running, though he still can't really do that yet
• Will dance his cute 'tap dance' style of dancing when we ask him to dance
• Learnt how to kick a ball though still not very good at it. Better at throwing the ball around
• Enjoys climbing up and down steps with our help
• Climbs up and down our sofa easily
  
• Sometimes he would turn himself in circles just to make himself feel dizzy and wobbly!
• Knows how to bring us objects that we ask him too, be it a particular book or household item or toy. At times, we get him to do 'mini-errands' like when I asked him to pass some clothes from the kitchen to the hall where his Papa is sitting
• Knows how to use the telephone in the correct manner by putting at his ear and pretending to talk
• Scribbled with crayons that I recently bought for him to play with
  

Emotional Development

• Has shown temper tantrums when frustrated. Either by his body language or even shouting. Sigh....
  
• Wants attention...he will keep calling us until we fully pay attention to him and see what it is that he wants to tell us before he stops calling us
• Still a very loving little boy...always affectionate to the ones he loves. Also affectionate to his stuff toys...kissing them whenever he holds them
• At times can be friendly towards strangers, calling out to 'kor kor' or 'jie jie' when he sees young children who are older than him. More willing to wave and say 'hello' as well as 'bye' even to strangers when we tell him to

Speech and recognition

Actually Kendrick never fails to amaze us with his recognition of patterns and daily things that we have taught him here and there. He knows what to expect every day when we bring him home from his Ah Ma place. He knows that when we say 'let's go' it's time to leave and he will start waving good bye to everyone and even make an effort to look say good bye to each individual person! He knows that downstairs our house there is a 'star' that is associated with Caltex station (which he calls 'tec')...He seems to recognise the flats or areas that is supposed to be his Ah Ma place or even his Great Grandma's place. In photos, he can correctly identify all our family members....and the list goes on...The main thing is, he loves to tell us things that he knows by pointing them out to us and saying it out loud. Well, the mind's a sponge for him now..so keep on surprising us Kendrick :)

• Numbers that he recognise and can say: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10
  
• Letters he can recognise and say: M, O, P, A, S
• Things he understand and will respond in action: Go home, let's go, wear shoes, go out, come here, brush teeth, where, whose, what is this, throw away dirt, take out socks, keep, lie down, on and off
  
• Some new words & objects he has learnt to say and recognise so far: donal (McDonald's which I taught him to recognise...LOL), papaya, wallet, plate, fish, spoon, ter (computer), up, down, cheese, play, wain (rain), lightning, bow (rainbow), un (sun), pull, tar (guitar), please (to ask for things), 'peng you' (friend in chinese), key, tee (teeth), bama (Obama - yes...this one Dear taught him by showing him this book we have. Lately I've also been trying to tell him to pronounce O-ba-ma and he's still learning)

Well, as he gains increasing independence, Kendrick has also shown that he can be very mischievous and cheeky, always testing the limits of his actions to see our reaction. We try to teach him right from wrong but I'm really not sure if we are successful...have to continue guiding him as this is quite a critical stage in their learning process. Hope we succeed!

My Little Guitar Hero

Bought this new guitar toy for Kendrick recently at the Toys R Us sale. That night when I first brought it home and showed it to him, he was really excited to see a new toy! Well, no doubt he still does not know how to play with it too well, but the music and sounds that it makes is something he likes. Actually Daddy and Mummy had fun playing with it too. Ha ha...we were acting like crazy base guitar players to entertain Kendrick :P

Here's some shots that we got Kendrick to pose for us