When Children Gets Hurt

A week back, Ryan came home from the playground, trying his hardest not to cry. He had fallen hard from his bicycle and his knee was badly torn and bleeding. Luckily, I had some bandages ready when I was fixing up Raymund's ankle some months ago. You see, Raymund had a bad case of eczema and at night when he was sleeping, he tended to scratch himself silly and breaking the skin till he had infection. What I did was I applied some antibiotic cream and bandaged his ankle so that he wouldn't be able to scratch them when he was sleeping. Worked quite well.

With Ryan, he came home trying his hardest not to cry because he is a 'boy' :). I washed his wound as it was bleeding badly and very raw. I always had in hand medicine and such for the big JUST IN CASE. You'll never know. I have THREE kids!! I applied the usual Burnol and put on the plaster for him. It is those that you cut to size and very useful.

Two days later, when we were out for lunch, Ryan fell again and on the same spot. This time, the pain was too much. He cried :). We had to quickly wash his wound which of course was very painful. We decided to take him to the docs as the earlier wound was showing signs of infection. The doc cut away the broken skin and gave him some antibiotic. I learnt that it is necessary to cut away broken skin on wounds else it will be easily infected with pus.

The wound didn't heal fast enough. Another visit to the pediatrician found that the GP's antibiotic wasn't strong enough. The dressing that we applied on his knee was also sticking to the wound. It was then that I was advised that there is such thing called wet dressing. It wouldn't stick on the wound but the wound will be moist and it's ok. The brand recommended is Duoderm - expensive! RM6+ per piece which of course, you can cut to size. We need another waterproof Suprasorb plaster to fasten the Duoderm which is almost non sticky enough.

I got more of these stuff and stocked up more medicine, just in case. The cream she gave was a cream to treat burns. Works well and his wound is healing fast!

The Pain of Getting Into The Right Primary School

Somehow, my parenting stories have been focusing on Ryan, my eldest. Simple, he is my first and my trial and errors begin with him. Raymund's is a lot easier as I learn from what I have gone through for Ryan. Rachel... phew...I still have time to buy. She is my precious 2 year old princess :)

A couple of months back, when the results of primary school allocation was out, I was very upset. You see when we registered for schools earlier, we were given 2 options to fill up. What really happened was, only 1 school, the 1st choice was keyed into the system. So when the 1st choice was not available, the system basically placed him in the school which is closest to the suburb ... mind you, not the address ya. We are in Puchong area and the school given to him is SRJK Chen Moh near Jln Othman, PJ!! Moreover, it will be afternoon session. Can you imagine the nightmare of transporting him and the time arrangement for his journey, homework (that's another nightmare!) and such? We still have to report at the allocated school, Chen Moh. But we went for appeal. Even so, that is no guarantee. It depends on availability and again, there is only 1 option though you are asked to fill up 2 options on paper. Can't figure that out! At the end of the day, if the appeal fails, he will still have to go to this school. I heard that this school is not bad but that is not really the point here. The school admin advised to apply for transfer then.

Let's hope my wait for the appeal is fruitful.

Cheers

Odonata Chinese Reading Series

I guess I'm making up for lost time, haha!

I was at the Popular Bookstore with my kids today. I was thinking of getting some Std One revision books and Chinese reading books for Ryan. Ryan is still very weak in Chinese, amongst others. I really regret not starting him on an academic based kindy. Tell you about it later.

After going thru the Standard 1 revision books, I got more worried. How come the syllabus today is so much more difficult than those my time? I called Ryan's tuition teacher to ask what I should buy. I know she has gotten some revision books for him. Thought it will be good to get him some Chinese reading materials. There is this series that he is working on that apparently introduce words to him as he progress from book to book. Seems good to. Found them in Popular bookstore.

The 1st series of 8 books promised that the child will know 100 characters. The 2nd series another 100, and so on. He is still in the beginners of Pre-school series. The publisher is Odonata Publishing Sdn Bhd. You can find the info it their online shopping site at http://www.odonatabooks.com/webshaper/store/viewCat.asp.

I just bought the 2nd series. Cost only RM5.50 x 8 books.

Long way to go to the Primary sets. See below.

I really hope we can do some good catch up during the holiday break. Ryan is very playful and somewhat lazy. Sigh!

Cheers

Safe Going Out?

Do you ever worry when you take your young kids out for a spin? When you go shopping, where the place gets crowded? What with all those kidnapping cases around, it freaks me out.

Before Rachel was born, both my boys were about 2 and 4 years old, I had endless worries about my boys getting lost. They only knew part of their names. To them, their parents are 'Mummy' and 'Daddy'. They didn't know where they live and their phone numbers and such. If they get lost or worst, if kidnapped, they would be lost forever to me. I can't stand the thought. I tried things like giving tags but that didn't sustain. And why not my girl now... coz she is right under my nose!!

Typically, my husband didn't have this mother's worry. My in-laws are the ones who are positive such things will not happen to them. I'm those who think first and then worry, and then go for prevention. Sigh!

My husband realized and had a scare once. We were at Giant. Ryan was already 6 years old. Most of the time, we will be taking 3 trolleys ... sorry guys :) ... one to put Ryan in it, another for Raymund and last one for Rachel. They are very active kids. This is almost like making sure that they don't run around. Guess it didn't always work. You see, my husband was pushing the trolley with Ryan in it. He stopped at one alley and went to the next to get something. My maid was somewhere else. When he got back to the trolley, Ryan was missing. He freaked out and ran from alley to alley looking for him. Meanwhile, I was at an alley some distance away (usually we split in Giant) and didn't know about this. I was shopping and then I heard Ryan's voice calling for me and I answered. Then he appeared running towards me. He didn't even know that he was 'lost'. Neither nor I. I did my usual shopping and my husband didn't tell me the scare till we were back in the car. He was so scared and he was anticipating a bashing from me especially when I have always been nagging about children's safety to him. Boy, was I angry and at the same time. relieved! Apparently, Ryan climbed out of the trolley when his Daddy didn't answer his calls and went looking for me. Gosh! What if it was a kidnap?! Ryan was smart enough to come looking and shouting for me. And thank God, I recognize my own boy's voice. What if I didn't shout out my answer? Shivers!

A young child will probably know his name at best. Maybe his parents names. Address and contacts - I doubt it. When I see lost children in malls, they normally cry their eyes out and whisper their names. If we are lucky, a good Samaritan will probably bring the child to the info counter and announce the child's description. A kidnap... the child can't communicate... he is quite certainly lost forever! Terrorized, can't see their parents, no more warmth and love, live in fear, losing some limbs, begging, sold to prostitution, you name it ... have I frightened you enough? As the saying goes, it is better safe than sorry.

I had my boys memorize their names, their parents' names and most importantly, our handphone numbers. I went to the extent of teaching them how to use a phone and handphone. I even gave my eldest boy and extra handphone with a prepaid SIM card to take with him in a carrying pouch whenever he goes out with us. Most of the time, he is the one wondering off while the 2 youngest were carried or watched by maids. I have erased all numbers and programmed only 2 numbers - 'Daddy' and 'Mummy'. Even if a stranger picks it up, they will know who to contact. At least there is something.

No doubt that after knowing our handphone numbers, we get lotsa calls from my kids...just for the fun of calling. The way I see it, no harm and quite entertaining :)

Cheers