Christmas tree at home in Singapore

We bought a synthetic Xmas tree that looked like the real tree from Carrefour five years ago. Carrefour is no longer in Singapore.
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We also bought ornaments for adorning the shoots and leaves. However, we have never got anything to decorate the apex of our Xmas tree.
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Our first Xmas with the tree was when we had our daughter. She was 1 yo then and couldn't yet appreciate the tree. We had the tree out every Xmas since.
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This year, our girl is going to 4 yo. She was very excited when I got the Xmas tree out. She helped mummy decorated the tree. We had everything except the ornament/star at the apex.
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Getting a decent and beautiful star from shops is easy, we wanted to try something that will be more meaningful. We helped our girl to DIY the star for our Xmas tree.
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She was excited and helped to color the star. When it was placed at the top of the tree, she was so proud of herself. Most importantly, she was ecstatic.
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Here is her work.
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DIY Star for the apex of our Xmas tree

Breakfast for the lil one

I got a sandwich maker/toaster that has a waffle plate to make waffles. I would use the electrical item to make the following.

• Waffles (recipe is available here at All Recipes).

Waffle recipe can be found here at All Recipes.

 
 The best combination to have with waffles would be peanut butter and strawberry/berries jam. Locally, peanut butter and kaya would be a great combination and added with a slice of cheese would make it super.

Kaya recipe can be found here at Rasa Malaysia.

Our favourite peanut butter must be Peter Pan. We used to buy peanut butter from Skippy, which has comparable taste, but the price was slightly higher than Peter Pan (SGD 1.09 higher). We bought them at NTUC FairPrice. NTUC Fairprice site is a good reference for item price and to compare different brands.

• Egg sandwich

 Sometimes, I would make sandwiches and the best combo would be egg sandwich or tuna/sardine mayonnaise sandwiches. A way to get a consistent hard boiled egg can be referred to this site (or other types of boiled eggs; Fine Cooking). I used the 8 min hard boiled egg method. Cooling the eggs in iced water and then peeling them under running tap water helps to remove the shells. To prepare egg sandwich, I would mash the egg with a tea spoonful of salted butter. Adding mayonnaise would add extra flavour (but my kid doesn't fancy mayonnaise nor butter). Adding a cheese slice to the mashed egg and then toast them would add a little saltiness to the product (not to mention calcium for stronger bone).

Hard boiled egg by Fine Cooking.

3 months old cries

Our baby used to be all smiles and then suddenly all cries at 3.5 months old. Our concern was that something was wrong. We thought that it could be fever, stomach discomfort, or shoulder dislocation (paranoid me). The first two possibilities were demonstrated to be remote, whereas the latter physical injury was nil. It seemed that our baby is at the stage where he will start teething. Our baby would still break a smile to us, but whenever he is uncomfortable, he will scream and cry out the most dreaded cries that would leave us with cold sweat.

Teething & Symptoms
BabyCenter provides information about baby's teething. Few indications of teething are as follows:

• Drooling (our baby is doing that)
• Difficulty sleeping (probably due to teething-associated discomfort)
• Likes to bite (when we cleaned his gum, he would nip at our fingers; although he hadn't started biting mummy's nipple). Note that mummies would be the first to know when their babies are teething because they will start biting nipples.
• Cranky (irritated by the discomfort)
• Refused to be fed (probably due to distraction from the discomfort)

We still haven't observed the last indicator.

Other associated symptoms (though it might be inconsistent) would be:

• fever (probably due to infection as teething babies likes to stuff things into their mouth, hence predispose them to infections)
• others (refer to Baby Center)

Means to alleviate symptoms

• Teether (to soothe the "pain" (it's an itch-cum-pain feeling). A refrigerated, cooling teether could help to alleviate the gum discomfort.
• If baby is not comfortable with teether, then using a finger and muslin cloth would be a good idea. Rub it gently around the gum and allow baby to bite (slightly painful) whenever he/she has the urge.
• Apply Bonjela gel to soothe the discomfort.
• We tried Bo Ying Compound (Chinese medicine) to soothe our first baby's discomfort during teething, but after a scare about contaminant that can be harmful to children (reported not long ago in Hong Kong [FDA report]), we dared not try it anymore (though I believe that Singapore scrutiny on its products is of highest stringency compared to other places).
• Carry our baby and soothe him/her with comforting voice/lullaby and attention will help to alleviate their fear and anxiety (of the unknown because teething is our baby's first experience and can be frightening).

 When can my baby eat solid (semi-solid)
 Some said we can give our babies at around 4 months old (we preferred to wait until 6 months).

More adventurous means to alleviate teething discomfort (if in doubt, consult pediatrician before trying the following). I have not tried any of the following. Also, make sure the ingredients are safe for children (e.g. be organic with no pesticides)

• Rubbing the gum with ginger slices, spices, almond (or vanilla) extract, banana, chilled food or plastic utensils, and other solid food (referred to Home Remedies For Life).
• Home-made teething oil (composed of olive oil, coconut oil, and clove bud essential oil; referred in MommyPotamus).
• Teething cream (composed of coconut oil, cocoa butter, clove essential oil; Modern Alternative Mama).

Children saving accounts with very low interest rate p.a. in Singapore

We wanted to start a bank saving account for our kid and I searched for reviews pertinent to best interest rate saving accounts.
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In Singapore, saving by adults and children will give near zero interest rate (hence zero motivation to save).
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What I gathered from these reviews (without the latest up-to-date reviews), OCBC is okay in terms of interest rate while DBS/POSB is the lowest.
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When we visited OCBC, we found out that the interest rate for children saving account is at 0.05% per annum (p.a.). That's equivalent earning 4 cent per month for a SGD 1000 deposit.
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There are other plans available, such as those associated with insurance/assurance scheme.
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Alternatively, there is also the arrangement that earns higher interest rate for saving accounts, e.g. zero-withdrawal criteria with minimal monthly deposit of SGD 1000. This arrangement will allow earning of 0.48 % p.a. or 0.88 % p.a. (for child who holds OCBC child development account).
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We opted for the basic saving account that earns the 0.05 % p.a. interest rate.
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Visiting the bank today made me realize that saving in the bank is not a wise decision for saving money for our children's future. I need to find prudent investment options in the near future.

OCBC saving plans.

Rashes

My kid developed eczema and we suspected it was due to contact allergy. The allergen was still an enigma but most probably came from outside the house, e.g. playschool.

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We have visited the clinic twice. The first one was at a polyclinic and the pediatrician prescribed anti-histamine syrup and steroid cream. The thing about steroid cream was that it didn't help alleviate the itch. Our kid scratched and broke the skin. We tried calamine and it was better than steroid cream. Calamine with menthol that gives off cooling sensation is the best. However, doctors would warn against over-usage of calamine because it will dry off the skin and aggravate the eczema. To prevent that from happening, we would also apply moisturizer intermitently.

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It didn't work. After more than three weeks of itchiness, we decided to bring our baby to see a skin doctor (dermatologist). 

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The doctor asked about our history of allergies and came to the conclusion that our kid's eczema is due to genetics. Although he was right, we know that genetics is not the only factor. Environment and habits are also involved in the development of eczema in children and adults.

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A study on urban versus rural suggested that habits, lifestyle and environment play important contribution to discrepancies in rural versus urban susceptibility to eczema or autoimmune disorders.

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We are currently giving our kid another antihistamine oral medication, steroid anti-inflammatory oral medication, and topical steroid creams for body and face (the distinction is due to the potency of steroid, where the face will have lesser steroid content as compared to body cream). Hope this week will see a better improvement.

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There is a great reference about skin rashes and type of rashes with their associated probabilities. Read "Rashes" by AskDrSears.

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For persistent/chronic eczema, I wouldn't suggest using steroid cream long-term because the side-effects are bad for developing kids. I would use calamine for most time and try to reduce steroid usage. I am willing to try traditional chinese medicine (TCM) or Ayurveda approach.

 

Kuih bangkit recipe

Our baby loved kuih bangkit. Unfortunately, lunar new year was over and it was difficult to get find stores selling one. Bengawan Solo has kuih bangkit and I bet it would be very delicious but a little pricey for me. Furthermore, I wanted to learn how to bake kuih bangkit so that I can make some for my kid whenever there is demand in the house.

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There are two main recipes that I consulted.

• Bake for happy kids 
• Nasi lemak lover

I followed the latter (Nasi Lemak Lover).

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It wasn't difficult to get tapioca and sago flours from Singapore. I could easily get them from NTUC Fairprice. I used the packed coconut cream and the outcome was okay. I was having difficulty finding the classic mould for kuih bangkit with bunny, tortoise etc., so I simply got one for other purposes and it worked just as well.

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Home made kuih bangkit as according to Nasi Lemak Lover recipe.

 

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The outcome was delicious.

Steroid cream will get into body for adults and children (inevitably)

I have received plenty of reassurance that topical cream with steroid will not cause any problem because the steroid will not get into the body (or at least at a predetermined rate of skin absorption), i.e. steroid will stay on the skin longer while absorption rate is controlled.
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I asked, "what about accidentally ingesting it from fingers or hands"? The same reassurance of negligible amount.
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I asked "what about scratching and breaking the skin"? The same negligible amount.
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However, steroid such as hydrocortisone will be absorbed by the body. It is important to know how much is considered hazardous (or detriment). I hope the clinical or toxicological studies on steroid cream toxicity considered the above accidental means of introducing steroid into the body (e.g. increased "absorption" due to skin tear made by scratching or ingestion by toddlers).
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Our 3 yo toddler got prescribed the following medicines:

• Elosone 0.1% (w/w) mometasone furoate which is a synthetic corticosteroid with anti-inflammatory, anti-pruritic and vasoconstrictive properties used on face. Precaution includes adrenal suppression more prone in infant and children (I had a look at a similar disorder adrenal insufficiency in children). In children, other complications are Cushing syndrome and probable stunted growth (no study on it thus far).
• celestroderm/diprocel (aka Betamethasone dipropionate) 5g is a body topical steroid cream.
• Prelone syrup taken orally. Synthetic steroid with anti-inflammatory and anti-itch effect.
• Polaramine (aka DEXCHLORPHENIRAMINE MALEATE) taken orally. It is an antihistamine.

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We never felt confortable giving steroid cream but had to give in after seeing how unbearable the itch was. Unfortunately, the steroid cream is not as effective as Calamine solution with menthol (soothing and cooling effect). We are using these two medication alternately and prefer the Calamine over steroid cream.
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As for the oral medication, we are hoping that the anti-histamine will neutralize the histamine produced by the body.
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It's been three weeks now and any sign of recovery would be a relief.
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I hope there is no "urbanized eczema" caused by exposing children to overly clean and sterile environment. After this, we are planning to bring our kids to more outdoor activities with lots of earth, soil, and sand. Physical interaction with leaves, grass, and crawlies will be good. Some gardening will be super.
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References

• Topical steroids (DermNet NZ)
• Ministry of Health Management of Drug Overdose and Poisoning infosheet.

What to expect in newborn prolonged jaundice

There are many reasons (multifactorial) for newborn baby jaundice. Some are normal events (for Asian babies), whereas in rare cases they are due to insidious reasons.

First week

After given the green light to go home (especially with acceptable jaundice level), baby will still be susceptible to increased bilirubin (biological product that causes jaundice), especially when he/she drinks just mother's milk. There are two main means to remove bilirubin, i.e. urine and stool. If baby's urine is pinkish/reddish, it is an indication of blood/hemoglobin in urine (e.g. hemoglobinuria as experienced by our baby) which can indicate ABO incompatibility (e.g. mother's antibody is attacking baby's blood cells) which is common for parents with different blood type (see below). After discharge from hospital, parents are required to visit polyclinics to monitor their babies' bilirubin level (every two days). The result mostly will show an increase in bilirubin level (if it reaches a threshold, hospitalization and phototherapy will be required). To minimize the chance of going back to hospital, babies should be given sufficient amount of milk for him/her to pass both yellowish urine and stool. Some doctors don't encourage sun-bathing babies (but morning sun should be harmless). Alternatively, getting a portable photo-therapy assembly is good (if ABO incompatibility is suspected; good hospitals will check baby's blood type and compare it with mother's).

ABO incompatible arises when mother, father and resultant baby's blood types.

Second week

After second week when the bilirubin still persist on the high (even after healthy amount of passing urine and stool), it is still normal considering that baby's liver is still not fully functional. Visit to the clinic is still at two days intervals. There is nothing much the doctor can do except prescribe the next visit.

Third week

If the jaundice level is still high. It is time to add milk with formula. Although we wanted fully breast milk, but jaundice and re-visiting the clinic is not permitting that ideal. The best way to beat baby jaundice is to add milk with formula for the day-feeds and fully breast milk during the night-feeds. You will realize that the amount of stool will increase tremendously. Giving our baby fully breast milk at night prevents constipation (milk is mild laxative whereas formula can cause constipation). 

Normally if jaundice is still high, doctor will prescribe liver function test. Our baby has normal liver function.

Subsequently

After introducing formula at 1/3 part of daily feed, our baby's jaundice stabilized. The jaundice still come-and-go but by the look of the skin and white eye, our baby is getting better.

What we wished our hospital provided

• Blood type test on baby (we had to ask for it)
• Portable photo-therapy assembly for rent (when required)
• Step-by-step expectation if jaundice level persisted. Although the hospital encourages fully breast milk for babies, persistent jaundice is an indication that breast milk is not enough and a compromise is needed.

 
 

Engagrow A plus LeapFrog AlphaPup Learning Playset (worth SGD35)

With minimal spending of SGD200 on participating Enfa A plus products.

• Enfamama A+ 0.9 kg, 
• Enfamil A+ Stage 2 0.9/1.8/1.95 kg, 
• Enfamil A+ Gentlease Stage 2 0.9 kg, , 
• Enfagrow A+ Stage 3 0.9/1.8/1.95 kg, 
• Enfagrow A+ Stage 4 0.9/1.8/1.95 kg, 
• Enfagrow A+ Stage 5 0.9/1.8 g

Send NTUC Fairprice receipts (in single receipt dated 1 Mar to 31 Mar at >SGD200 of participating products) to Mead Johnson Nutrition (S) Pte Ltd by 7th April 2005 (deadline). A redemption slip for collection of LeapFrog free gift will be sent via direct mail (while stock lasts) two weeks after the deadline (expected date would be around 20 Apr 2015).

Redeem LeapFrog AlphaPup Learning playset with Enfagrow purchases (see participating products).

I sent mine and hope to receive the redemption slip soon (after March).

Our kid is cautious of height

I wouldn't place it that our girl is acrophobia (fear of height) because she would dare taking a few steps up the slide and no problem with sliding down afterwards. That is a great accomplishment and a no-no for strictly defined acrophobes.
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You see, as she is our first child, we tend to go overboard in protecting her and we inevitably imbued in her certain characteristics, and unfortunately being overly cautious is one of them.
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We are fortunate that she is not a rebellious and negligent kid. That is why she never had any serious boo-boo (injury). However, when a person is unfamiliar with pain, they tend to be  infrequent at attracting pain by being over-cautious.
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It is not healthy to bring up kids to be over-cautious and less daring to try. For her, she was late at picking up many motor skills, e.g. holding on to hand rail with climbing. Such coordination with the hands and legs seemed so challenging to her! I felt bad and sad seeing her immobilised with the fear of falling and deprived of carefree fun.
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Now at almost 3 yo and after several months going to the neighbourhood playground, she had demonstrated great improvements. By encouraging her to try, she had developed several basic motor skills. Her depth perception (part of child's eye development) no longer served as a weakness (inducing acrophobia) but as a needed attribute to scale height and physically interact with her surroundings (e.g. how acrobats catches horizontal bar in midair based on depth perception).
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She had several bruises but that is part of learning to rise up after each fall. As parent, I can only try to minimize the impact and nurse any wounds.
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Note
Our kid climbed up the slide and on the last few steps to the top, she crawled (on four limbs) up to the platform. Once there, she laid down on her belly and slithered (with her belly constantly touching the support/platform) to the edge where the sliding board was located. There, she inched herself up and ended up in a sitting position. Then,  I would give her word of encouragement, two thumbs up and counted to three before she slide down. Sliding down wasn't a problem.
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After several visits, she started from crawl to walking-like-duck, and finally experimented with walking upright. I was excited to see such transformation. I'm waiting for the next phase in which she will run up and zoom down the slide in split seconds. Haha.
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Just to share.

Game: Sorting beans and relativity

Sorting beans and relativity

How this game is played? First, have four types of beans (or more), and then count the number of each type, e.g. Adzuki bean (red in colour) at 5 beans, mung bean (green in colour) at 10 beans, black turtle bean (black) at 15 beans, soy bean (yellow) at 30 beans, or other beans of different shapes and sizes.

Mix these beans together and put in in a plate or a flat surface. Allow your kid to sort out the beans as according to appearance. Once this is done, as him/her to show which cluster has the least beans and which has the most beans.

Adzuki bean (wikipedia)

Mung bean (wikipedia)

Soy bean (Danielstrading.com)

Black turtle bean (wikipedia)

Dengue alert in the neighbourhood

Recently, it has been hot and rainy and surely a pleasant time for mosquitoes to breed. Not all mosquitoes are bad, but the ones that carry pathogens that can harm people should be avoided.

For example, mosquitoes that carry the parasite that causes malaria belongs to the genera Culex, Anopheles, Culiseta, Mansonia, and Aedes could act as Plasmodium carriers (Wikipedia).

Physical appearance of the mosquitoes belonging to the genera Culex, Anopheles, Culiseta, and Mansonia. The Aedes mosquito is not shown. A mosquito pest control company has a site with a comprehensive description of mosquitoes and the corresponding pathogens, "Mosquito control - Mosquitoes in Malaysia" (JamesWhiteAnt).

Mosquito that carries the Dengue virus belongs to Aedes. For further information about the mode of transmission (and a brief introduction), read "Dengue transmission" (Nature) and "dengue control" (WHO).

Aedes aegypti mosquito (sourced VectorBase).

 In Singapore, active cluster of dengue outbreak can be referred to "Location of Active clusters" by DengueGovSg. Bishan and Tanah Merah currently in the red alert (with more dengue cases reported there).

Mine is at yellow alert. The National Environment Agency (NEA) officer came to visit my home recently to advise on removing probable mosquito breeding grounds, e.g. flower pots, plate, pail, slots for hanging poles outside to dry clothes, bathroom and toilet area.

The advisory note on Dengue had three important key points

1. Remove mosquito breeding ground
2. Kill the mosquito larvae and adults with insecticide
3. Avoid getting bitten (Aedes mosquitoes bite at certain time and by avoiding outdoor activities around that time would be advisable)

Dengue alert - Take immediate action advisory note from NEA. Key points are highlighted.

For now, I guess if I am to bring my children out, I should at least use/wear the mosquito repellent on them. In addition, I should avoid bringing them out to sit at park's bench (and tempt mosquitoes to feast on us). I'm a B+ blood group and my kids are AB+. I'm not sure about the association between blood group and mosquito bites, but I can say that if I am among friends, I'm a "mosquito magnet". My kids are more prone to bites than me (so I can't shield them from bites by attracting mosquitoes to me instead).

Note that once an individual has been infected by dengue virus, that individual is immune against the virus. However, there are four types (or serotypes) of the virus. Immune against one doesn't preclude infection by the other three types. Also, if an individual is infected by one type followed by another at a short period of time, this individual could experience a severe immune response (due to the body memorizing the first attack and primed to give "all out" response to the second one - aka dengue shock syndrome (DSS)).

Summary

• Identify the type of mosquito that carries the Dengue virus.
• Check the information pertaining to where (or which alert level) the Dengue outbreak in my residential area is (DengueGovSg)
• What to do to prevent breeding of the mosquito.
• Protect ourselves by usage of insecticide and repellents.

My kid is learning inflection from play school

Inflection (noun) means modulation of voice or change in pitch or tone of voice (TheFreeDictionary).

Our kid is picking up few words and the accompanying inflection from play school. Although it is adorable seeing our 3 yo kid speaking like adults (i.e. in condescending tone to children), we are hoping that she is not deprived of fun while being disciplined at school.


It's really tricky teaching 2 to 3 yo how to behave the way we want them to. Sometimes I do understand that we need to be a little disciplinarian, but at times I prefer to treat them as little adults with rights to say no to us and best if they can learn to reason too. That is one way we would want our kid to grow up emulating rather than being terrified of being reprimanded if they break rules or expectations. Instead of waiting for a consent, kids should be thought to ask for them (consents) regularly and back them up with sound reasons (or assurance for safety or responsibility).

Some of the things our kid started doing are,

• Waving her index finger, she told us that we can't do this and that, e.g. "mama, don't do that", "papa, go away, don't come here".
• When papa was singing lullaby to her, she suddenly said to me, "papa, can you please stop singing now". Our girl loved to sing and sometimes, she would be carried away with singing and might not be paying attention to us or teacher, and we are guessing that probably one of the teacher had asked her to stop singing in order to pay attention in class.
• Out in the blue one night, she was saying to her lion kitty doll, "close your mouth now, one... two... three...". I guess that's what the teacher told her when she started crying in school and the count up was a time limit.

There was one time while sending our girl to school, I saw a little boy crying and was placed in a corner of the class in front for other kids to view. He was crying, "Mummy...... mummy....", while the rest of the class was watching nursery rhymes video. I felt bad for the crying kid and also for the class. I bet our girl must have been there previously, especially the first week. Fortunately, that stage is over now.

I just hope that our kid will start enjoying going to school and also share her experience there without being asked. Most of the time when we asked her what she is doing at school, her reply was "nothing" or "I waited at a corner for mummy and daddy to fetch me home". Of course, it wasn't true that she did nothing in school. Probably she is just too lazy to divulge details (or uninterested).

Lesson for lil bud: Prepositions

Teaching my lil bud about prepositions is made easy by this site,"Prepositions made easy: Preposition definitions for location and movement" by RealLife. This cartoon taken from their site is self explanatory!

Preposition made easy with cartoon.

In addition, they have made videos about prepositions, e.g.

• In, On, and At (link here)
• About the people at RealLife.

Baby's oral hygiene

Care for baby gum and teeth

• Informative pamphlet about baby's oral health (from Singapore Natl Healthcare group polyclinics) suggest that we should clean baby's gum daily using a wet muslin cloth or special tooth tissues (available in pharmacy and online shops such as ebay and Amazon). An example is shown below.

Toothtissue for wiping baby's gum. The substrate/"tissue" is not known (could be plant fiber, e.g.bamboo?), the ingredient is as follows: water, aloe vera juice, glycerin/glycerol, hydrated silica, xylitol (sugar alcohol as sweetener), levulinate (pungent "whiskey" flavouring),phytate (as preservative), xantham gum (as thickening),sorbate (as preservative). Refer to http://toothtissues.com/.

• When baby's teeth are out, we should brush them using soft bristle toothbrush. 

• When baby is able to spit, use a small amount fluoride toothpaste on the teeth. Brushing frequency is twice daily.

Bad habit to avoid

• Avoid giving milk or sweetened drunk right before bed.
• Avoid giving pacifier to baby (if possible). If teething, we can give them teething ring to chew on. Prolonged use of pacifier has been associated with misaligned front teeth.
• Don't introduce too many sugary diet to baby, e.g. raisins are high in sugar content too.

When to visit the dentist?
First visit is ideally when baby turns 1 yo (as suggested by the booklet), whereas Natl Dental Centre Singapore (NDCS) suggest between 6 to 12 mo (see "Pediatric dentistry - your child's first visit to the dentist", NDCS).

My notes

• First tooth (start circa 6 mo to 12 mo or more).
• By 3 yo, all primary (or milk) teeth are out.

Challenges

• My girl likes to keep food in her mouth for a longest time before swallowing. She spends almost 1 hour finishing her food. The last mouthful will be a challenge for her to swallow. In order to prevent prolonging food in her mouth, I would ask her to spit out the last mouthful and ask her to rinse her mouth later. This will minimize tooth decay.
• Ordinary children toothbrush is not small enough for most toddlers. Stuffing the toothbrush into our child's mouth often induce her to vomit. I wish there is smaller toothbrush catered for children. Read an article about "choosing the right toothbrush for your child" by Westvalleysmiles. In short, picking the right toothbrush requires soft and proper bristle, dimension of toothbrush that fits in your child's mouth, and easy grip.

Tips

• Salt water gargle. Tooth caries (or decay) is caused by Streptococcus infection (transmission is usually from mother to child, especially when the former's oral hygiene is poor). In order to minimize tooth decay, a salt water gargle has been shown to possess antiseptic property, but it will be a challenge to convince your child to gargle the solution.
• Gargle and swallow sufficient amount of water after each meal. Instead of giving our child flavoured drinks, we encourage her to drink plenty of water.
• Cheese, milk and calcium helps to build strong bones and teeth. Plenty of healthy sun exposure helps to produce vitamin D that helps calcium absorption.

Pediatric dentist registered with Google Maps  

There are several clinics available and from the map, they are scattered in the south and east coast region.

Note that I wanted to add dentists registered in Streetdirectory but the site popped up irritating register your email. To get to business, just click on "Are you lost".

I couldn't get a hit by entering "pediatric dentist/dental/dentistry".
 

"Daddy, can you please stop singing", say my girl

The first time I heard her saying, "Daddy, can you stop singing" was when I sang lullaby to her at night (which I've been doing for many nights now). She also said, "please be quiet". 

These two sentences didn't belong to our household. We would never tell her that. FYI, our 2-going-to-3-yo girl loved to sing. 

My wife and I are guessing that she had picked up these sentences from her play school. It could have been from one of the teachers saying that to her when she was singing in class (while not paying attention). 

It was sad knowing that she could pick up these sentences and used them at home. Probably she thought they were uttered for the fun of it. Fortunately, it was not because daddy's singing was bad.

I remembered the time I sent our girl to school when she started crying (pleading that daddy join her in the class), and one of the teachers said to her, "don't cry already", and immediately our girl held back her cry (but not her tears flowing down her cheek nor her muffled gasp for air). I was sad seeing her like that.

How could a teacher deprive a 3 yo from "free expression"? Teacher should encourage children expressing their emotion and thoughts; and try to reason with them if the expression is temporarily (or spatially) unsuitable/unfavorable. An example would be when our girl was in the library, and she said, "it's so quiet here". Then she made several loud shouts to enliven the atmosphere. Instead of calling her to keep quiet, Daddy said to her, "baby, we have to lower our voice here because it's a game. Whoever keep the quietest wins". Our girl then replied, "I lost, I lost!" (making a sad face). 

In a calm voice, I told her she can still win if she can start lowering her voice. That was the first time she whispered that day. She learnt to whisper! 

Of course kids can't keep quiet for long, and as parents, we should accommodate them and hasten our activities in the library so that our children can go back to their normal self of talking loudly and lively. Also, if children aren't paying attention in class, as teachers, we should be creative to engage them. E.g. sounding a funny horn to draw children's attention intermittently OR use a more lively tone to teach them (rather than being monotonous).

All in all, we never try to suppress our girl's feelings nor voice (or thoughts). Sometimes, she would drive us crazy that we are tempted to ask her to "keep quiet". Fortunately, most times we did not do that. Now that she is schooling, I guess she will have to learn the way the world really works and there is no better way that in school where kids are groomed to be adults.