K's Surgery

It had been a mad month for us... (well, which month hasn't been? We have nothing but chaos in our household since they were born)

Just before K turned 1 year old, my husband found one of his testics to be unusually bigger. Thank god my husband helps out with the children, if not, I would never have noticed. The PD diagnosed it as Hydrocele. It's basically water in the testics. We were worried sick then and was referred to a surgeon for a possible surgery. The surgeon suggested putting it off as most kids will just outgrow this. These are times when good faith didn't work. I was so confident that K will outgrow this and will not require the surgery. I couldn't accept it very well when we had to make an appointment for the surgery to drain the fluid and to close up the tube that allows water in.

I tried my best to prepare K for the surgery. Describing to him how an operating theatre would look like and how the medical officers would be dressed there. We were told he might need to use a mask and I also explained to him that he might need to use a mask. It seem to work very well. Though I know he wasn't comfortable at the OT, he was calm and that surprised all the nurses and doctors. We had 2 choiced of anesthesia. By injection or using the mask. By injection is quick and fuss free but most kids are very fearful of injections and if they were not successful, it gets a lot more tricky to get them to use the mask. K never cried during their vaccinations so I opt for the jap. But they couldn't find the vein and poked him many times until they gave up. K was very brave, he didn't even bat an eyelid when the needle went in. The Anesthetist was really surprised that K didn't cry. We had to resort to using the mask and K was quite nervous when the Anesthetist put the mask to his face and all the nurses tried to pin him down when he turned away. I asked to hold the mask and they allowed me. It was a lot better but the nurses tried to hold his head and he was scared. I kept asking them to be gentle and there was no need to pin him down as he was actually quite calm and I can handle the struggling. I tried to distract him by talking to him, telling him that Y is waiting for him at home, his granny is waiting for him. He shouted "I want Y to wait for K! I want Ah Ma to wait for K!" before drifting off.

The surgery went smoothly and he is recovering well. But he has quite a bad temper for the past few weeks and Y had been very jealous of him, resulting in a lot of fights between them. They can't play harmoniously even for a few mins. I'm totally exhausted and is equally irritable as them, behaving like a mad mom screaming and shouting like them. The hot and humid weather in Singapore is not helping. Every day, every hour, every min is a struggle from bath to diaper change to meals. I'm praying hard that things improve around here. It's had been going from bad to worse around the time when they were turning 2 years old. Just praying hard that this is just a difficult T2 phase and will pass soon like a thunderstorm.

Toddler Tactics: How Do You Handle Meltdowns?

Meltdowns is part of parenting a toddler(S). It just gets a bit out of hand when there are two of them. 2 with the same needs. Causes of meltdowns in our household is mainly due to:

1. Tiredness
2. Frustration
3. Seeking Attention

I could still counter the first 2 but when it's due to number 3, it can get a bit tricky, especially when it's both of them seeking my attention at the same time. I'm always so torn between them.


Here's how I handle their meltdowns (not that I'm a pro and I can't always do this but on good day when I can, they sometimes work.)

• Take a deep breath and get a hold of myself. Their meltdowns is highly contagious.
• Pretend everything is ok even when I'm fuming mad or when everything is actually NOT OK.
• Figure out the cause of the meltdown, if I can.
• Empathize with them even when I totally couldn't relate to the screaming all because their banana broke into 2 and they couldn't accept a new banana.
• Distract. Reading an interesting book or a book they like sometimes work. If all else fails, ipod touch is god sent. But only when I'm handling one kid because another fight will occur when they start to fight over which application they want to see.
• Isolate. As the tantrum escalate or before it begin to escalate, I will remove them from the situation and bring them to my room to "calm down". It will usually aggravate the situation, sending them kicking and screaming even louder.

Once they reach their calm down place aka my room, they will usually not calm down. They will go full blast for a few minutes (it depends on the kid, it's usually few mins for Y and can be a long long time for K), then they will tell me what they want. Usually it's to "go out". And I will tell them they can only go out when they are ready, that is, no more crying and screaming. And when they are ready, I want them to say "Mummy, I'm ready to go play." When they could mouth these words, they are usually ready. 


It's not easy to calm them down when they go into their full blast screaming mode. Here are my calming tactics:

• Have a different view. I let them look out of the window and ask them what they see. They could see cars coming out of the car park from our windows and I always have to pray hard for a taxi as they love Taxis.
• Blow. My boys still don't understand how to take deep breaths. So, I ask them to blow. Since we need to take a breath to blow isn't it? This is still not working on them yet but I hope they will get it soon.
• Sing a song. Sing a calming song but usually a silly song works better.
• Read a book. I will read a book aloud while they cry. Sometimes it agitate them but on days that work, they calm down and move over to see what I'm reading.

When they have been crying for a very very long time, that is, for a few hours (this happens with K) and nothing works, I will turn on my computer to show them photographs or a video and this would at least calm the screaming.


At the end of all these, I'm usually exhausted and drained, physically (from the abusive kicking, they could really do some damage!) and mentally. When I'm out with one and faced with another waiting for his turn, it's time out for ME, (that is when my mum is here and they are not left alone to vent their frustration on each other.) 


How do you handle your toddler's meltdown? I would love to hear and learn more tactics!

Theme of the Week: Egg

We are doing an Egg theme this week.

Here's our lesson plan for Day 1:

Books: Chickens by Loriji Metz (Non-Ficion)

Songs (Chinese): 荷包蛋儿歌 (Video Link here) & 我的公鸡不见了儿歌 (MP3 Download Link)

Activities:

• Coloring

Color Rooster, Egg and Chick (Download Coloring Page here)

• Mystery Box – Egg

Let the children explore the egg.

Break the egg into a bowl and introduce egg white and egg yolk.

Let them crush the egg shells

We did coloring. As you can see from this picture, kids are never quite cooperative.

But I'm still happy that Y cooperated.

And K too eventually.

K asked for a blank paper after he finished his coloring and started scribbling. He kept shouting "I" and I wondered why. Upon one look, I was surprised to see that he was actually trying to write the letter "I"!! And they do look like "I"! Y was impressed, he said "Didi draw I so nice!" What a sweet brother.:)

They explored the egg shells by destroying them.

And the egg, playing with it like Goop!

Printables: Lesson Plan Template

I'm starting to go into more thematic structured learning with them and have came up with this Lesson Plan Template. The lesson plan is based on a 5 days programme. Well, kids (or Mommy) need a break during the weekends too! And I'm sharing my template with you, you can download the template at this link below.

Lesson Plan Template

Crayons on Construction Cars

This saved me from a meltdown one evening. They were already in their PJs when they asked to color. They soon got bored with crayons and asked to paint. It was close to their bedtime and I really don't want to do a major clean up. So, I refused and they were all ready to rant. They had their Bob the Builder toys with them and I quickly took out a roll of masking tape and taped the crayons to the builders to make it look interesting. Phew... thank god, this got their attention and they calmed down. I doubt I will be able to handle another double meltdowns. I've had too many for the day.

What You Need:
Any cars
Crayons
Masking Tape

K, rolling his tractor with crayons. The crayons were taped really badly in my haste.

Cooking with Toddlers: Pizza Making

My boys love Pizza. I guess this is the power of media. They have been seeing Pizza on books and TV. And they asked for Pizza before they even know how it taste. We brought them to Pasta Mania one day for Pizza and they were so so so happy. Thereafter, they keep asking for Pizza for their meals. We thought it's healthier to have homemade pizza and why not make it with them. So, here we have, our first family cooking activity.

What You Need:
Tortilla Wrap
Ingredients for Pizza (we use Brown Mushrooms, Ham, Bell Pepper)
Tomato Paste 
Cheese

I used Tortilla Wrap as the base. There are ready made frozen pizza crust at supermarkets too or if you are a good cook, you can make your own dough for the base. Cut up all the ingredients and give them to the kids to place on the base. Spread some tomato paste or ready made pasta sauce on the base. Top it with cheese before popping it in the oven.

K putting the ingredients for his Pizza

Nothing to do with Pizza but I just love this shot of Y.

Done!

K, waiting patiently for Daddy to cut up the Pizza.

Tata!

K: "I can't wait!!!"

The happy boy who just finished his Pizza.

K: "Yum"

K: "Yum Yum"

"Pizza pizza, nothing beats a pizza. It's my tummy's favorite." Song from Barney's Adventure Bus,

Car Marble Painting

This is Marble Painting with a twist. If you are not new to this blog, you should know by now that my boys are cars fanatics. Their cars are usually within their reach during craft time. Marble Painting is a regular craft for us. We do it every now and then. Especially during times when I'm short of time but the boys are desperately asking for their activity time. Today, the boys did their marble painting a little differently and I welcome the change. Instead of holding the sides of the box to roll their marbles around, they used their cars to push the marbles. This was entirely their own initiative. How creative! I love it when they show me how things can be played in different ways. While we as parents will usually think that we are the ones teaching them, I often think they are the ones teaching us and showing us how the world can work in different ways.

What You Need: 
Some sort of tray or box cover to contain the paper and marbles (and cars in this case)
Paper
Paint
Marbles
Cars

Just push or hit the marbles with the cars and it will roll the paint all over, creating patterns. My sons love the sound of the cars hitting the marbles. And they were thrilled when the marble they pushed hit another marble. Have fun!