All posts by felixt

The Battle Against Ezcema

jet

If you know Jet, you’d know that he has a skin condition called Ezcema – I think he’s quite severe (having not known any child worse than him).

And so we have taken this holiday opportunity in Surabaya to consult different people and try different approaches.

First we went to a Shinshe (Chinese medicine man?) whom apparently also a doctor. He attributed Jet’s condition to his weak maag (can’t remember the English word). He advised against any kind of milk especially formula milk.

We then went to a skin doctor. She gave us skin lotion that needs to be applied 3 times daily and a medicine called Celastamine (from what I read, it seems to be an anti histamine).  She also advised against eating chicken, egg, fish.

Lina also wants me to try the traditional Javanese plant called Putrowali (which she called wrongly as Brotowali). Traditionally the plant will be boiled and the water will be drank, since Jet is still a child, we didn’t give the water for him to drink but we are using the water for his bath.

To summarize here are the things that we are trying:

  • Minimize the use of air-con especially when he’s sleeping – thankfully it has been cloudy for most part of the week so it is actually not very hot at all
  • Jet has not been drinking any kind of milk for few days now
  • He takes a bath twice a day (doctor suggested 3 times – but I just couldn’t fit in the time). We don’t use any soap/shampoo for the bath – only water. At the end of the bath, I use a little towel dipped on Putrowali’s water and wipe it on Jet’s body for few mins. After bath, we apply doctor’s lotion. As usual sorbolene on the parts of the body that don’t get the lotion applied.
  • We try to limit Jet’s consumption of chicken, egg and fish – it’s impossible to avoid them completely.

At the moment, the intensity of the Ezcema seems to be decreasing (less redness) compared to the first few days here. However it seems to be spreading little bit to other area of the body, noticeably on his face (although I am not 100% sure whether it’s Eczema or not).

It’s time consuming to look after him, and I do pray that his skin condition will get better over the time. At the same time looking after him, somehow makes me love him even more.

Lina and Jet’s milestone

family, jet

Jet finished his last day with Wind in the Willows childcare on Wednesday. He’ll go to SOS pre-school next year. I can’t believe it’s already one year with this centre. I can still remember the first few weeks were quite hard, Lina had to come and pick him up early a couple of times as he was crying and was asking to go home. But over the time he settles in very well and made a few good friends, his first best friend was Trinity (not sure whether they are still best friend now) and his current best friend is Jaiden (our family get to know Jaiden’s family in the process too).

Jet has made farewell cards for his teachers. He managed to give out the cards personally to his teachers, except for one teacher, Todd – and he was quite disappointed that Todd wasn’t in on his last day (and few other teachers too like Nat). Anyway, yeah I am thankful for this one year – Jet has certainly learned quite a handful of things from this centre and most importantly he has developed relationships with the people there. I am sure he will remember the time in this centre as a happy one.

Another person in the household has also achieved a milestone last week, Lina got her P driver’s licence last Saturday. I am so proud of her, she managed to pass the driving test in one sitting. For someone who has know driving experience at all to where she is at now, in just a couple of months, is really something. And yeah, I hope and pray that she’ll be a good and safe driver. Driving is still making her very nervous, hopefully with more driving hours under her belt, the nervousness will cease.

The 4th Year

family

It’s now been 4 years since the passing away of my dad.

My recent buying a property, reminds me of a conversation that I had with him during my last year of high school. At that time, we have been discussing about me going overseas to study. That night I guess he wanted to get a final confirmation from me, he asked me to consider between going overseas to study or having the money put into a house for me. Being an ambitious (and naive) person that I was, I took the option of studying overseas. I thought to myself, if I get a good degree, surely I can afford to buy a house for myself. I also wanted to make him proud by having a graduate degree from an overseas university, by getting a good job and by living a comfortable life. I kind of wanted to prove myself to him.

He also asked me on which field that I want to study. I was contemplating at that time between Computing and Civil Engineering (following his steps). To his credit, my dad didn’t push me to follow him in terms of career, he’s happy for me to choose something that I like.

Back to property, my dad did ask me quite often about buying a property in Australia. As an Asian parent, of course he wanted me to own my own house. On completely different direction, I remember my dad quizzed me about multiplications table, I was quite bad at it and he was very strict, he kept on testing me until I got it perfect.

I talk about him once in awhile with Jeremiah, there’s a picture of him and Jet at our old place’s wall. Of course, Jet doesn’t remember him. Hm, I really wish he is still part of our family life. On that note, I need to take care of my mom.

Matt Bobo Sendiri

matt

Lina has been training Matt to sleep on his own cot starting last week. He’s been doing better every day, at first he woke up quite frequently and cried when he realized he wasn’t sleeping beside Lina.

And now the frequency of his waking up seem to be lessen and so is the intensity of his cries. Thank God for that, I really proud of him, it’s another sign of him growing up. And I really proud of Lina too – she hasn’t been able to sleep well because of this transition and she’s consistent eventhough she feels sorry for Matt sometimes.

Would be interesting to see what will happen in few weeks time when we move to the new place.

Jet – The Fantastic Four

family, jet

Today Jet is turning four. We went holidaying to Gold Coast (sort of) to celebrate his birthday.

The holiday was very nice – Surfer Paradise on July was perfect. Jet most certainly enjoyed his time there.

Prayed that you will be Jesus’ follower one day (if not already) and tell people about him too..

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Jet funny comments

jet
ginger bread man - not super hero!
not super hero

Ci Chen: So Jet are you going to take picture with Batman?
Jet: NOO! I don’t want to take picture with a bad man.
Ci Chen: No, Koko, Batman is not bad man – he’s super hero, you know super heroes like Batman, Superman..
Jet: Ok, how about Ginger Bread man??

Mama: You need to eat your veggie so that you can grow tall like your papa.
Jet: No, I don’t want to grow tall like a tree. I don’t want to be a monster.

Papa: Let’s pray for Guakong supaya sehat.
Jet: Dear God, pray for Guakong’s haircut.

WARNING – adult content 🙂
Jet: What’s this mama?
Mama: It’s a pineapple cake.
Jet: A nipple cake???

Recent Hardships

matt

In the last few weeks, Matthew has been having problem sleeping at night. It has to do with his ongoing cough, in the middle of his sleep, he’d cough and awaken – sometimes he can fall asleep again by himself but at other times he’s fully awake and cries in frustration. This affects Lina badly as she’s sleeping with Matthew. Both of them hasn’t been able to sleep well at all.

Continue reading Recent Hardships →

Bedtime Conversations

jet

I have been enjoying bedtime conversations with Jet lately. We usually read the children bible together before going to bed (me, Jet and Matt – and sometimes Lina too),  after the bible reading and praying – Matt goes with Lina to their room and I accompany Jet for ten minutes or so before he goes to sleep.

Jet likes to talk and to share his stories and his feelings. Today he told me that on Thursday he was sad because he was left out by some his friends that he usually play with. He also loves telling me about his friends too. I am a bit concerned that he has best friends, which seems to imply he prefers some friends than the others – I encourage him to be a good friend to everyone – not sure how realistic is that in the real life. I mean even us adults to get along with everyone and we ourselves prefer some people better than the other.

I really treasure this time with Jet – maybe when Matt is older – I would have this kind of conversation with him too. And I hope I can keep conversing and relating with my children and they too can be open and comfortable talking to me.