The Clan

One thing that I have come to realized about parenting is: expect to your child to get very sick at a time and always be prepared to go to hospital. We have had a couple visits to the Randwick Children Hospital’s Emergency for Jeremiah (on a different tangent, I am really thankful for the Australian government – the health care and welfare support in this country is really excellent – high quality medical service for almost no cost!).

Well on his turning to 4 months, Matthew had  his first visit to the emergency. Thursday night Matthew was un-characteristicly hard to settle, he only had little sleep that night. We thought it’s just one of his hard to settle days. Around 5am Lina woke me up, as Matthew was still unsettled, she checked his temperature and it was high. When you have a child, you’d know the drill, never take risks just go to the hospital just in case. And so we did.

In the hospital, the team of doctor and nurses ran a few tests on Matt and unfortunately most of these tests require Matt’s blood. And the poor baby, he was crying and screaming for few hours as a result of the pain from his sickness as well as from the needles. The doctor noticed a bruise on Matt’s right foot and they think it might have something to do with it.

The tests came negative which mean nothing serious

However because they couldn’t worked out the cause of the illness, they wanted Matt to stay and the hospital. He stayed at the hospital for few days, he was allowed to go home on Monday. Needless to say, it was a very tiring and stressful time for everyone in the household (+Chenny as well). The doctor later told us that it’s very likely that Matt got a skin infection and the infection went to his blood stream – according to Lina this was very serious condition – so thank God that nothing worse happened.

Still health related, Matt’s skin is getting worse, he’s definitely got excema just like Jet.

On a happier note, Matthew had his first cukur rambut this month – see previous post on the video of the occasion.

Jet was pretending to be a Japanese tourist in front of a domestic tourist attraction – Matt’s first haircut. Jet was trying to make a peace sign but the wrong side of his hand LOL! – what a cutie!

Other than that, Matt is still a happy chap with the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen..

Chatty Matt getting so excited when me or Lina put our face close to him, he’d start talking and lately he rocks his body while he talks too!

Note: Matt wasn’t in anyway harmed when this picture taken. As doctor suggested we continue to put him on his tummy so that hopefully he can lift his head and strengthen his neck.. Well it hasn’t worked well so far, we think is because (Lina’s quote): "Man, his head is massive!". But anyway his neck is getting stronger, his head doesn’t rock violently as before.

Lina doesn’t like this picture, but I do, so it’s up on this blog

Guama dan Guakong telah 3 bulan menemani papa, mama, koko dan ade Matthew.

We are really grateful for all the help and companionship they have provided. After the birth of Matthew, they come over on every days that I am at work to help Lina looks after the boys. Guakong helped a lot by playing with Koko Jet, fixing electrical stuffs, cleaning and organizing the garage (he’s done amazing job with it – he’s an organizing genius) etc2. Guama helped a lot by cooking healthy and yummy food for us. Well, they have done a lot for us, more than I can remember.. suffice to say..

They will be missed and we are looking forward to see them again.

We have been praying for Jet as his behavior was worsened a lot. But he’s actually better now. Praise God!

I am continue to amaze at Jet’s linguistic skills, he’s now picking up Ambonese really well.

I just saw Matt ngisep jempol only for few seconds though.. Mungkin dia lagi bereskperimen.. Si Jet paling demen ngisep jempol, kalo ngga ngisep jempol ngga bisa tidur dia ..

Jeremiah has thrown his worst tantrum yet. He didn’t want to sleep by himself, he cried and screamed.

I have never delivered this level of punishment before and yet it didn’t seem to work on him today. I felt sad and disappointed. I am sad as Jet’s behaviour seems to deteriorate (despite our prayers for his characters). I am disappointed as I have given in to my anger and not using my head more.

It seems that it’s not Matthew that requires control crying. Lina suggested that if he’s making problems tomorrow we should try to ignore him as our negative attention seems to fuel his negative behaviour.

I think we need to pray more for this boy, where has the old Jet gone?

Having said this, I need to remind myself that Jet is still a lovely boy though, he’s still happy, clever and articulate boy. And I thank God for that.

Smiley Matt.

We went to FOCUS Grad Camp 09, this is Matt’s first camp, hopefully more to follow. The camp was marked with extreme heat, I think it was around 40-ish degree on the hottest. Matt was coping with the extreme heat quite well, thank God (although me and Lina weren’t).

Matt taking a bath.

Matt has grown a lot too, his height and weight are nearly topping the growth chart. Lina also mentioned Jet’s 5 months old clothes don’t fit Matt anymore.

Apart from his habit of sleeping during the day and waking up at night, I really enjoy him.

Over the last few weeks, it appears that Matt has an increased awareness of people and faces.

For instance, whenever I walk around the room, his eyes would follow. And also, the best part is, he’s now able to smile and more recently laughing audibly whenever someone is looking at him face to face.

Grandma and grandpa have also been able to have some sort of conversation with Matt.

This is a little joy worthy of thanking God for, especially as we are still really struggling with accommodating both Jet and Matt in our life.