School Trip to Taiping and Kuala Kangsar

哥哥 was sick from Monday with flu, cough and fever. Luckily recovered in time to go for his school trip on Friday. Papa is his chaperone and he took lots of photos this time. The itinerary is slightly different from the one Cherry went. But he enjoyed it very much all the same. He was looking forward to going on a school trip for ages after he had enviously seen Cherry go on so many trips.

Transportation
First from school to Penang Jetty by bus, then take ferry across to Prai terminal. After that, the anticipated train ride to Taiping!

Sunrise from Penang ferry! They started the day early :)

On Penang ferry

The train ride from Penang (more accurately from Prai) to Taiping

Inside the train

Traditional Coffee and Biscuit Factory At Taiping

First stop, they stopped to visit a traditional coffee mill called Antong. It's interesting to see how coffee is processed. However Papa complaint that some of the product like chocolate malt and 3-in-1 mocha is not that nice heheh. Maybe we are more used to Starbucks/Coffee Bean type :P

Coffee Mill at Taiping - Antong

Around the coffee mill

Next visit to traditional biscuit factory. The biscuits are good! They bought quite a lot here :)

Traditional charcoal biscuit called mah tai soh, very good!

Perak Museum

After that, the group tour went to Perak Museum. This is quite interesting as it has an outdoor and indoor portion. At least 哥哥 enjoyed it though. Note to myself, we'd been to museums at other states but not step foot even once at our own Penang Museum! Must bring children during school holidays :P

哥哥 at Perak Museum

Some exhibits inside Perak Museum

Outdoor exhibit of vehicles

Taiping Zoo

Papa said the visit to Taiping Zoo this time is rocket-fast. So didn't really enjoy it. The children should be allowed more time to see the animals! I think it's the problem of the tour guide who rushed through this visit. Taiping Zoo is the nearest zoo to us from Penang.

Taiping Zoo

Manage to get some photos of animals

What la Papa, fake animals :P

They enjoyed the tram ride around Taiping Zoo!

Gallery Sultan Azlan Shah, Kuala Kangsar

Absolutely the most beautiful place I've been :) Nice photos, Papa :) Too bad they didn't turn on the water fountain, otherwise it is even more beautiful.

The beautiful water features around Gallery Sultan Azlan Shah

Beautiful grounds of Gallery Sultan Azlan Shah

Right outside Gallery Sultan Azlan Shah

Masjid Ubudiah, Kuala Kangsar

Indeed a beautiful mosque, dubbed the most beautiful mosque in Perak :)

Lovely photo of the Masjid Ubudiah at Kuala Kangsar

Papa said they only see another museum and the palace from the bus. The tour guide didn't stop for them :( A photo would have been nice outside the beautiful Kuala Kangsar palace. Most of the kids are too tired to go down by now. So after this they went for dinner. They'd been out all day! Hope Papa will bring all of us to Kuala Kangsar for photos next time!

哥哥 was so happy that you can see the glow in his eyes in the photos of his first school trip :)

Baby Orange Month 5 Update

Baby Orange is 5 months old! He cried a bucket of tears when the paediatrician gave him his 6-in-1 immunization. Wow, amazing right, now we have 6-in-1 shots :P

Weighs 6.8 kg at the doctor's visit for month 5.

Not happy at the doctor's clinic

Still using Mamy Poko size S. A good friend had given us 2 packs of Mamy Poko diapers as her baby outgrew size S quickly. And with the pack that we bought, he is still using it at night. The fit is getting snug but we should be able to have him use it up without wasting. Our next pack is a size M. He is already on Huggies size M for some time as Huggies has a narrower cutting.

Baby Orange getting cozy before bedtime

Smiling because he is doing a poop

His poop is getting on well this month. We had started monitoring by drawing "bombs" on the family calendar to keep track.

We found some new baby clothes for him at Uniqlo. It's called Baby (Infant) Mesh Inner T-shirt, only RM9.90 for 3 in a pack. Soft and good for Baby Orange to wear at home during hot days. We chose the biggest size :P

Baby Orange holding his new Uniqlo baby mesh t-shirts

Smiling Baby Orange

Milk storage in freezer, motivational photo for me as no longer pump so much by the time I back-date this post in Feb'15.

Breastfeeding goes on. He is now taking 2.5 to 3 oz of EBM whenever Porpor or Papa feed him with bottle. I'm still pumping about the same frequency. However sometimes he sleeps through the night, and if I didn't initiate feeding, he'd have gone more than 5 hours without a feed. Even though it's tiring, I wouldn't want him to go so long between feeds, so I would carry him over for his midnight feed. Not very good idea, because I think he got used to feeding at night so he got up very frequent even after 6 months. So don't learn from us :P

Take photo with doggie pet at 19 weeks

A happier Baby Orange having tummy time

He can flip over if he wanted to by now. However seems like sometimes he is kind of lazy, and he couldn't really work his arms out from being stuck yet. So he'd be making pathetic sounds when he's flipped over on his tummy. Sometimes we'd make him get some tummy time.

Smiling and lounging around at home :)

Baby Orange gives an eye smile while grabbing his feet, a feat he just mastered at around 20 weeks :)

Show his dimple and eye-smile about 20 weeks

Some expressions - showing his tongue and smile

Biting his thumb and in Papa's arms. Still have thunder thighs and fleshy arms and legs at about 18 weeks.
Oh, and he has big hands and feet, hoh?

He is dribbling a lot, but no teeth in sight yet. He also puts everything within grasp into his mouth. It's tiring trying to stop him.

He is playful and enjoys playing with Cherry and 哥哥.

哥哥 help to support Baby Orange on the rides

Baby Orange's first ride at home, smiling and having fun

Cherry playing with Baby Orange

And the beginnings of him learning to crawl.

He would do this after flipping over, face down on his hands when he is tired :P

Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Infection

A nightmare bout of illness, 姐姐 infected with mycoplasma pneumoniae infection just after she finished school exams :(

Had fever and cough. Suspected dengue fever also, but fortunately tested negative. I think it's because we have Baby Orange, all their babyhood stuff keep flooding in my mind. The episode of her with salmonella infection is still so fresh in my mind, especially at the time when it was still not diagnosed. She was having high fever and practically shook all over from the high temperature at one point. We were so inexperienced then and was given the run-around until we admitted her with her paediatrician's advise.

This time it started small, just a few coughs. Papa being the careless parent as usual didn't think much and he is going to be on business trip the following week. He only got her the usual over-the-counter cough medicine.

Excited about seeing Planes 2 Fire & Rescue after school exams :)
It is a pretty good movie for children and we went to GSC Gurney Plaza. It's the only cinema in our area still showing Planes 2 after school holidays, and only 1 timeslot! 

A poster of Planes 2 Fire & Rescue at the cineplex, Penguins in the background (oh well, even though they weren't so interested in Penguins)

Are these popcorns and cold drink that had caused the illness? Or her immune system weakened by the cold, added fire with the popcorn, and then attacked by the bacteria?

Prior to that, we were happily celebrating end of school exams with Planes: Fire and Rescue. This animation movie was requested by Didi as it is from the same series as Cars. It's a nice movie, and we even allowed Didi to skip his English class to watch it. Only GSC Gurney Plaza is still showing it after school holidays and at one timeslot only, and it's the last day.

Actually Cherry still have another assessment which is the new History paper. Their teacher this year is really something, initially said there is no exam for mid-year, then spring them surprise exam. This time, we specifically asked and asked because it is not listed in their exam time table. until go to principal baru get the school's assurance they will inform Year 4 students of an official date for exam.

She started having fever at night after the movie and popcorn. On Monday after her school session, I brought her to the usual clinic, and was given fever and cough medication. That night, her fever started getting worse. Especially when she slept, the fever ran higher than normal even after medication. I didn't take measurement, and tried my best to wipe her down with tap water. Thouht her body ran a temperature trying to kill of germs. Imagine huddling over the poor girl and wiping her down on one hand, and scurrying off to comfort and breastfeeding Baby Orange when he woke in the other room. Try doing this all through the night. By midnight, I was totally exhausted with the running around. Her temperature went down and came up again. Every time I check on her, I have to wash my hands before handling Baby Orange. What a nightmare running here and there, tired, sleepy and worried!

The strange thing is she is fine during the day. Only when she started sleeping that her temperature will rise again, even with the normal paracetamol given by clinic doctor. I called Papa and made him come back from his business trip. He tried to downplay it but as the fever is not going away, another pair of hands is needed to take care of Cherry who is sick and the other children who are not. He came back on Wednesday and brought her to emergency clinic at hospital near us. The doctor on duty gave many explanations but nothing conclusive, and asked that she get checked for dengue (so surprised, as even doctors are baffled with dengue). He gave her antibiotics, flu and cough  medications. By Thursday night, she is still getting the fever, so we had to visit her good ole' paediatrician. Just by describing her symptoms of cough and continuous fever, the experienced nurse asked Papa to check take a blood test checking for "mycoplasma". Wow, wonders, the report came out by afternoon, and it is confirmed positive. No dengue, luckily. It seems like mycoplasma pneumoniae is very common and contagious.

With the diagnosis, she got another set of medication, almost double the initial paracetamol and another medication which I had forgotten the name (to control the fever). She recovered in about one week of medication. Phew!

After her bout of illness, somehow it bounced to her classmates... oops....