A Mother's Nightmare: Hair Lice

On Saturday, I was preparing Larissa for dance class as usual when I noticed something odd. She had white specks on her hair near the roots of her hair.

I felt a little puzzled and decided to do a thorough check when it clicked. Larissa had hair lice. It then dawned on me that her complains of itch on her head is because of these little bastards!

I decided to let her skip her dance lesson and brought her to let my mom check. I recall having had hair lice once when I was a kid and we managed to get rid of it.

After letting my mom check, we confirmed that its hair lice. I went over to the Chinese medical hall and bought a bottle of hair lice lotion. Yeah, they sell it there! Its Malathion Lotion and you can buy it over the counter at any major pharmacy. The medical hall I bought it from was selling a bottle at $7 and Unity Pharmacy sells it at $8 per bottle.

Unfortunately, for the lotion to be applied properly/evenly, it meant that Larissa had to lose her curly long hair. We popped by the hairdresser and had her hair snipped to a short bob. Do note that even with her short bob, we had to use a full bottle of lotion on her hair.

The lotion has to be left on her hair for 12 hours so I applied it at about 6pm in the evening to be left overnight. As malathion is highly flammable, leave it to dry on its own and do not attempt to dry it faster by using a hair dryer. Place a towel under the child's head to prevent staining the sheets.

The day after, I washed her hair with normal shampoo, changed the sheets and brought the used bed sheets to the laundromat near my place.

I used the hot sterilization wash to kill the lice and its eggs. By the way, I also got the lice as we share a bed and had to use the same lotion on myself.

To ensure that the lice are all killed, repeat the lotion 7 days later to kill any other lice that have hatched.

We are now lice free and I have informed her childcare. They did a check on the rest of the kids and none of them had hair lice. Perhaps we are just unlucky and one lice crawled onto our heads. Anyway, having hair lice is not the end of the world. Lice does not spread diseases and are just pretty uncomfortable.

Always make it a point to check the kid's head for lice if they are scratching excessively. :)

Learning to Share

Not too long ago, Larissa started playing with 3 kids, 2 boys and a girl lives a few doors away from us. They are close to Larissa's age but they are always playing at the corridor.

I think it was over the Teacher's Day holiday when Larissa was bored at home and had nothing to do so my mother let her out to play with them. According to my mom, she invited them to our house to play and the rest is history. Every now and then, Larissa will ask to be let outside to play with them.

The kids seem to be cared for and yet, there's something about them. The way that no one looks for them when they pop over to our place for long period of time and the fact that they are at Larissa's age but they still can't articulate well. Almost like there is no one there to guide or teach them.

Last night, I got home late after swimming and was told by my brother's girlfriend that Larissa gave one of her three lanterns to them after she learnt that they had none. It was really heart warming to know that my little girl, my baby is learning to share what she has with the less well off.

We are certainly not rich but we are blessed. Friends and family bought lanterns for Larissa for the Mid-Autumn festival celebrations and she shared her blessings with the other children. The other children tried to come back and return the lantern but we told them that its for them.

I am certainly very impressed with Larissa. Its like a big milestone. A big big achievement. I have always wanted Larissa to be compassionate and to have a big heart and it looks like its working.

My baby is growing up. :)

Discovering the Arty Farty Side of Me

I have always had my own interpretation of art but I have never really looked into it because I am horrible at art. I mean colors, drawing and sketching that kinda stuff. I can't tell many colours apart and I draw horribly. Anyone who sees what I draw will probably start foaming at the mouth. LOL

This week was a little different. After the very long procrastination, my friend and I visited the Singapore Art Museum and NAFA respectively on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The current exhibition going on at the Singapore Art Museum is titled, "Terms & Conditions".

From the website:

The phrase “terms & conditions” often refers to the fixed set of guidelines at the basis of any official contract or agreement. While these extensive specifications are sometimes overlooked in everyday practice, their implementation can powerfully dictate the representation and interaction between people, entities and countries, as well as set parameters that appear rigid over time. Yet, taken apart, the words “terms” and “conditions” convey fluid and precarious concepts that can, in actuality, be continually negotiated and modified.

Many artists with roots in the Arab world work simultaneously across different geographic, physical and cultural contexts, making it difficult to define and constrain them to specific identities and representations. Their work is thus a result of a variety of techniques, which enables them to navigate and speak within multiple contexts.

Terms & Conditions presents an open-ended debate into how history and social realities are represented, with an emphasis on the Arab world. One of the first Southeast Asian surveys of contemporary art from this dynamic region, the exhibition showcases works by artists with roots in the Arab world. These artists work across different geographic and cultural contexts, and through a combination of techniques, to produce unique artworks that fluidly traverse and defy social identities and representations.

It was interesting looking at all the art pieces and wondering what was the artist thinking when they created it. Do pay the museum a visit since admission is free for Singaporeans. Just remember to bring your NRIC and don't be a goondu like me to leave mine at home. It will cost you 10 bucks for that admission ticket.

Wednesday was NAFA's 75th Anniversary's Opening Ceremony and I just tagged went along with my friend who was invited. *shhhhh*

My friend was saying that the art pieces at NAFA are of a higher caliber and of course, more "deep", which I had to agree. I really had to stand in front of it, stare at it for ages to try and contemplate what is it about. This auntie has got rusty old brain that hasn't been used for quite a while okay...

We also watched a video by local artist, Ming Wong titled, "Angst Essen – Eat Fear". According to my friend, Ming Wong is a pretty famous guy who is known to act all the characters in his movies. As I only watched it partially, I went home and did a search on YouTube to try and find the full movie. Here's the trailer to the movie by him and here's the original full movie.

I still catch no ball as to why Ming Wong wants to redo a movie, acting all characters on his own though. I've tried to read a few articles on him but still no clue. Okay, maybe I'm shallow like that lah.

"Angst Essen – Eat Fear" is about a German woman who marries a Arab man half her age. Due to the fact that he is a lot younger and a foreigner, the woman was viewed as a whore by everyone around her, even her own children who disowned her. Ming Wong's version of the movie made me laugh and isn't as "heavy" as the original. Perhaps he is redoing it to bring the movie to shallow people like me. :p

I also kissed a frog at NAFA!! Local artist, Ezzam Rahman put up a exhibition where we got to fish for a frog from the water and bring it home. Only condition is that we promise to take care of it and we tag our photos on Instagram.

Mad cute right? HAHAH~!

My mom was asking me about the frog this morning and she wanted to throw it away. My reaction, "but mommy, if you throw away my frog, I will never find my prince!" So drama right? By the way, I thought Ezzam is really cute. Oh well. :p

My frog did not turn into a prince though. Maybe there will be a miracle as long as I keep hoping.

Okays, enough for one post now. Till next time. :)

My Little Dancer

Larissa started ballet classes some time in April this year. I know...late post again. Hahaha...

Anyway, it is thought that kids below the age of 6 are not suitable for the real Pointe Ballet so what they do now is dance and rhythm, to let them have a feel of that it will be like. These classes teach kids to enjoy dancing and to learn to catch rhythm. They can start at about 3 years old. 

Larissa's dance school is called Little Dance Academy and is located at Pandan Valley. I live in Toa Payoh so every Saturday morning, we get up early to have breakfast together as our bonding time before we embark on a 45 minutes travel to the dance school. 

We need to take one feeder bus from our home to Caldecott Station transfer to a train to Holland Village before we take another bus and drop near her dance school. Her dance class is 45 minutes and I'll just wait for her to finish before we start the journey home again. 

You must be thinking that I'm crazy to go through so much to go to a dance school so far away when there are so many others that are near to my place. HAHAH!

There are many dance schools out there but I know Larissa's dance teacher MAJORED in ballet when she was in school and she graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore. Call me racist but she is a true blue Singaporean and can communicate with my child better than the PRC teachers who have difficulty communicating with the kids, especially the Caucasian kids. Its literally chicken and duck talk (鸡同鸭讲). She also teaches better than the rest of the half bucket water (半桶水) people out that there who took a 3 month class or did a project on ballet in school and come out to teach. 

The past few months that I've sat around eavesdropping listening to parents chit chat and all I hear are praises for this teacher. 

Enough of my rambling on, here's some photos and videos. :)

My precious insisted on carrying my bag for me when I told her I was tired on our way to her dance class.

Her usual breakfast. She made me remove the yolks coz she doesn't like them.

This is her ballet teacher!

Getting down on her knees to interact with the kids

They also do stretching. Look at Larissa's big tum tum. LOL!

Divorce Proceedings...

After close to 3 years of separation, its finally getting somewhere.

 

My divorce proceedings has finally started!

 

Its a whole lot faster than I think!

 

I goggled for a bit and found Raymond Lim &Co.

 

Mr. Lim quoted me a very reasonable price and I decided to go ahead.

 

I paid him a deposit of $1000 on our first consulation, if you decide not to use him then I think the first consultation is $150.

 

Two weeks after I went for the first consultation, I received the draft documents from Mr. Lim. After having read through them and having the ex approve them as well, he fixed an appointment with the ex to sign the documents.

 

Two weeks after the ex signed the documents, I went down to sign another documents.

 

I recall having signed up with him in Feb and I will be getting my interim judgement (temporary divorce papers) sometime near the end of May! The final divorce papers are expected to be ready in August!

 

Gosh, the feeling of being free is so exciting!

 

Oh, its been a while since I posted anything so here's a photo of my cute Larissa. LOL

First Game in a Netball League!

Last evening, the mixed netball team I'm in played our first game in a mixed social league!

Though we lost 29:12, it was an amazing game and we had lots of fun!

Our team of players only started playing together 3 months back and we had only about 10 games together so I'd say we are doing really good!

Playing in a league is so different from playing socially, like the games we usually play. Our social games are more relaxed and slower while the league game was really fast and it does get one's adrenaline pumping.

We will only get better as time gets on and hopefully, we will join a lot more leagues to come!