Who is the father of my son?

This is the father of my son. Yes, that's the handsome guy in the previous post.
Hope he reads this ..... hhaha, he says I never praise him. Ahem, I am doing it right now .. and for a specific reason ;)

My wedding pic - long overdue

Fished out my wedding pics this morning as a colleague wanted to take a look. Here's a few nicer ones which I thought might be good to blog it ... and remind ourselves how young we used to be .. haha.

All about me

My most beloved Papa and Mama

Playground

Enjoying at the playground.

Update pics of ZQ - going 2 years old!

These are the recent pics of ZQ @ 23 months. He's turning 2 soon.
Look how he runs ...... a future athelete in the making.

New Year - a new life begins

Been a month since I last posted. Why? Cos I am busy with my bad MS. What's MS? Morning sickness to be precise. Yes! I am expecting my 2nd baby this year.

This time round the pregnancy seems to be more difficult ... I'm suffering from rather bad MS ... i can puke 4-7 times a day. Whatever food I consume, it comes out half to an hour later. Eating is like going through the motion. I eat, puke it out later, becomes hungry and eat again. Not a good feeling. Good thing is that my work is not that busy during this period so I can actually rest more.

Went for my scan one and half weeks back and the results of the OSCAR test is good. Nurse from TMC says that so long the gynae dun call me, it means good news. Anwyay, the gynae's nurse called to say the results are good, no worries.

Going for another checkup tonite and hopefully he can check if there's any "stick", else it might be a girl then! Hurray, hope so.

Trip to China, GuangZhou in Dec

Been few weeks since I've returned from GuangZhou - a trip with hubby's relatives. A rather fine trip as we do not need to do any planning. Hotels, transportation, meals are all arranged. We just have to just wake up in time and follow the itinerary.

The only woe - we ate too much during the trip. Breakfast is always tim sum, lunch and dinner is a 10-20 course meal with fish, prawn, roast goose, meat, etc etc ....... spoilt our tummy.

Papa's white cap

Don't I look good in papa's cap? Mama bought me a new cap for 18-24 months but it is way too small for my "big" head. They dun sell for > 24 months old cap, hence I think I fit an adult cap better!

Christmas party in the CC

Today, brought ZQ specially for a Christmas party celebration in school. So in the morning, we had to catch a cab. Being the first day of the ridiculous fare hike for taxi, a 35% of journey's fare during peak period, I decided not to take Comfort Delgro's taxi today. Saw a smart taxi and hopped on to it, but this is only temporary, by next week, all the cabs will be following suit.

ZQ kinda remembers that when we reach the CC, mommy will leave for work, hence, he started to cling tightly to me and wanted me to carry him. Thoughout the celebration and presentation by the other older kids at the CC, he refused to come down. Later, we gave him some milk and played a little with him in his classroom.

It was later at the eating session that he was enjoying himself more.

Afternoon, we brough him to the Singapore Science Centre and he had a wild time going around looking at the interesting exhibits. He was also running around alot ... well, afterall, he had his nap on our way to the science centre.

Noticed that he keeps crying for mama recently , especially before he sleeps and also when I pick him up from the CC after my work. I hope this is only a phase, quite SIM TIA to see him crying more. He seldom cry at home though.

Vivo once again

Had a great time splashing @ Vivo in the afternoon while mommy went shopping. Mommy decided to create this nice poster with the pics at Sentosa Costa sands resort - a very lousy place.

Third day at the CC

I went to check on ZQ during lunchtime but the principal told me not to go in to distract him as they are getting the kids ready for nap time. So I left.
Only went back to pick him up after work. When I reached there, ZQ saw me and immediately teared. I hugged him and then he pulled me into the room 2 watch Barney. Shortly we waved goodbyes to the other kids and then made our way home.

ZQ has a good appetite during dinner - I guess he did not eat much at the CC. They only fed him 2 milk feed. Not sure if he had his nap and finished his meals at the CC cos when I reached, the teacher already left for the day. I was also rushing off, so I did not check on anything else.

He seemed rather sleepy so by 9pm, we made him sleep. A while ago (3 ish) he woke up crying for milk and mama. Gave him 240ml, he finished it quickly and shortly cried for more milk. Gave him another 120ml and then he falls back to sleep.

Is he hungry or just adjusting to new routines, environment that he is crying at nite. Feels a little bad that he is having some reactions to it but then again, it is inevitable. Just a phase they have to go through. Hope he adjust quickly to the CC.

So far, I think he is doing well except for the times when I have to leave. I was asked to say goodbye to him and tell him I will come back later ... this made him more aware that I am leaving, hence the reaction - crying, being upset. I tot I may just disappear but it seems it is not recommended.

It seems that he will revert to his playing quite quickly - once he is being distracted from thinking about me leaving him there. Other than this part, he is pretty fine there.

Still thinking if I am bringing him in tomorrow. Perhaps give him a break and let him have some space being at home? Afterall I am busy tomorrow as well. Let's see.

Finally get to play at the playground

ZQ : "I finally get to play at the playground on my way home! I love to attempt to climb up via this method. Mama always say that it is dangerous but papa leave me to climb. Mama will place her hands in front and behind me as she is afraid I will fall. She also told papa to do the same but papa is not so uptight.

Recently I also learnt to count in English and Mandarin to 20 but I only know up till ten sufficiently well. In English, I will skip "seven" cos I cannot pronounce 2 syllabus yet. Whenever I climb steps I will count in English. For Mandarin, mama will play a game with me ..... she will go "Yi", I will go "Er", then she goes "San", ...... we'll do it till "Shi" ..... after that, I will always say "Shi Si" (fourteen) .... cos both words sounds alike, it's easy. Every number after "Shi" is "Shi Si" ... so easy right? Mama always laugh when I say it, it's so cute.

See me in action ok? (Hmm, seems like the uploading of the video has some problems ... I'll check and repost)

Having fun at the CC

ZQ : "See how much fun I am having at the CC. My favourite toy .... never fail to play with it. Since most of my friends don't really fancy this toy, I can play with it all the time.

It's lots of fun here cos there are so many GeGe and Jie Jie and friends in my class. Though I don't quite like the food they provide and I cannot sleep much cos it's few hours ahead of my normal nap time, but overall I like the place.

When mama leaves me here, I feel sad and cry , scream for her but after a while, teacher will give me a toy phone to ring her. I am sure she knows that I am doing fine.

The friends here are a little weird ... they cry all the time. On my first day, I saw this girl who cried alot and I went over to sayang her. She still cry most of the time but stops sometimes, for about 10-20 seconds when the teachers give her attention. She is quite good with her sentence but I seem to hear only one - "I want to go papa, mama, gor gor there" .... hmm, while I am still struggling to speak in 2 syllabus, she is very good. *My idol - for the speech part only.

I get really hungry when I get home and sleepy too. Sometimes I will sleep on the way home. Since it had been raining, I did not get a chance to go to the outdoor playground, I really miss it. Hopefully on the way home, at the playground downstairs from YeiYei's house, mama can le me play a little while. In the middle of the nite, I had also been waking up to ask for milk. I am hungry .... i just drank 240ml + 120ml .... now I am back to my beauty sleep.

Update real soon! "

Initial days at the CC

Monday was the first day ZQ started his CC. So far he survived 2 days rather well but I was there most of the time on day 1, together with the maid too. ZQ was ok.

Day 1
******
Woke up early to go 2 CC. When ZQ reached the CC, he cannot wait 2 dash into the class.
Managed 2 get him screened by the teachers and he walked into the class like he is an old timer. There were some wailing kids who eventually stopped except one girl who is the oldest amongst the few toddlers. When ZQ saw them crying, he went over to them and sayang them. He is a peace loving kid and dislikes fights, loud noises.

He took abit of cereal for breakfast. For lunch, he ate part of the pasta. Nap - he could not sleep and I had to go off and leave my maid to make him sleep ... he took a while and managed some sleep. I came back after 2 hours and he was up and playing again. Looking happy, I was not too worried.

After he woke up, he wanted milk and as I was not around, maid also "skived" outside talking on her mobile .... he went to the trolley bag, took out the milk container, open it and then tried to scoop out the milk powder! The teacher only saw it then and prepared milk for him. It was because he din eat much for his lunch.

Everything went well and he had his dinner when we went home. At nite, we tried to get him to sleep earlier but it's a change in his daily routine so it took a while.


Day 2
*****
Hubby and I brought ZQ to CC today. Morning was ok, he did not eat his breakfast on the cab and when we reached, breakfast time was over. Later, he asked for milk and I had to give it to him cos he is hungry. The teacher said they try not to feed them anytime ... ya, but he did not eat his breakfast ... so she agreed.

Lunch, they gave rice with fish soup in mixed vegetables(pea, corn, carrots) which are things he does not like. So he only had 3 spoonful of rice and stopped eating. By lunch, we left him there cos we were distracting and the teacher advised us to come back later.

ZQ cried when we left but the teacher distracted him using a fake phone to call us. Teacher oso said that he din take his nap, followed the teacher and during her lunch, he wanted her food. She fed him some rice and soup and also the honeydew (which he rejected earlier) but this time she pretended that it is vv delicious, he ate it all up.

We returned around 4 ish and he was happily playing with the kids. Joined him until we left around 5ish. Once, I left to the washroom and he cried.

When we were on the way back, he KO. As I had to go buy something, I had to carry him. When hubby wanted to take over, he seems to know and refused, making alot of noise for the changeover. He is heavy - 14+ kg ... but well, he's my son, he "ain't" heavy ... haha.

Day 3
*****
Brought him in this morning alone. He had a pow for breakfast. Then when they had assembly, he refused to go, wanted to stay in the classroom to play. So I finally managed to bring him out. Shortly, the teacher came over and told me to say good bye and go off. I waved goodbye and left, ZQ was there wailing for me. Took my bag, din turn back and left .... now I am in the office typing this. On leave today but well, since, I cannot be there, then I might as well do some blog updates ;)

Be going back to check on him later.

I hope he will eat his lunch and also take his nap. Hope he can cope well cos now reality of mama not being there might start sinking in ..... hope he does not get too upset. He is a happy boy and I dun foresee him having much problem adapting. Let's pray I am right.

Playing with keys

It's time 2 keep the house key somewhere not within reach to ZQ. Not only does he know how to select the correct key and put it into the keyhole, he now knows how to turn it. He even locked us in the house .. until now. Due to the faulty door, he put the key into the maindoor from inside of the house, now I cannot open the door. I can only wait till hubby comes back and open from outside.

Look at how pro he is now .....

Stage where the kid learns to choose and be independent

Making own decisions
ZQ has learnt to express what he likes and what he doesn't. He has become choosy ... he choses his food, his DVD/VCD, his songs ... except his clothes.

He will normally nod his head when we ask him questions and only when he dun like it, he will shake his head. He also learns how to "Teh" with me ..... saying "Hmmmmmm" (in a teh voice) ... i faintz. Boyz, teh wat.

Being a good eater, he is also not eating properly recently. He loves soup and white rice ... no nutrition at all. We suspected that it was due to the Pork Floss that my MIL had been feeding him. I stopped her and requested she dun give it for every meal - I hope he will eat the dishes rather than just plain rice.

Maid also said recently he stopped drinking in the middle of the nite, I hope this continues. He seems to know that I am concerned ... so perhaps he wants mama not to worry too much about him? * I had been trying to tell him not to wake up at nite for milk. Hee. Such a dear. *This is called consoling onself. Hahaa.

Taking out his own shoes
ZQ is also vv good at taking out his own shoes now. Hiak hiak. Must train them to be independent young. Now he is so expert that he can even bend down to pull out his shoes when he reached home and I am still carrying him. Next, i wan him to learn to put on his shoes.

Washing hands upon returning home
ZQ knows that he has to wash his hands once he returns from outside. He will push the chair to the sink and then climb on top, pour the hand soup and wash his hands like an adult .... but gotta watch him that he dun push it to the window where the grills are not locked and also the risk of falling off if no one is supervising.

Shares his food
Since many months ago, ZQ started to share his snacks with the fanily. He will asked for cereal and then feed us with it. Aye, but sometimes, he will bite half of it and put the other half into my mouth. *Sweet but the thought is yuks.

Double syllabus words.
At the moment, ZQ can only say 1 syllabus words - except for those which are repeated syllabus - mostly chinese words.

For biscuits, he will go "Bi-ba bi-ba"
For Cereals, he will go "C"
For water, he will go "Wor"

ZQ sings the Do Re Mi song (first word only)

Sometimes we run out of ideas of what songs to sing with the kid, so, recently I remembered the Do Re Mi song and i started singing to ZQ. Amazingly, he can remember the Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Di , Do ..... So he will say the first word Do and I sing the sentence then he will continue with the next word, Re ... and so on until Do again. It's quite fun playing and singing with him in this manner. *Will try to post the video - hopefully sometime soon :)

Had also bought him some toys on shapes which I taught he does not know well cos often, when I show him the flash cards on shapes ... he looks disinterested and dun seem to be able to point to the correct shapes. When we got home with the shapes (wooden flat pieces which u place on the wooden board) - hubby started playing with him and next we realised that he actually knows all the shapes! They were just playing a speed game to place the pieces back to the board. And dear ZQ is so funny, he will try to place the pieces in and when he realised that it is at the wrong place (ie Oval shape he was trying to fit into the Circle shape) , he will mumble to himself "No no .... " .. then try another place.

Tried on the ABC ones but he is not too keen cos the pieces are rather small - prob keep it for a while later. Perhaps I can go get the color ones?

Latest update on ZQ

Been a while since I've posted some real updates on ZQ.

I guess he is at this stage where they learn alot of things quite fast. He has started talking but mainly single syllabus words which are repeated. Chinese hence becomes easier to teach at this point. Recently I taught him numbers 1-10 in both mandarin and english. He will repeat the words one by one after me ... of course he cannot pronounce "seven" very well but the other words he can say pretty ok.

Last Sat, we were at a friend's house and there are some steps within the house. ZQ got interested and kept going up and down the steps. On his own accord, he started counting "One, two, three" and I was delighted. Of course there are some other kids of his age - the genius Jayden who is way ahead but well, ZQ is on schedule .. haha. So he kept going up and down the steps repeating One, two , three. Last nite, he actually can count up to ten on his own. We are all happy to see his progress. I guess it doesn;'t matter when but when it happens, it brings joy to the family. He is such a cute little boy.

Now I am waiting for him to count 1-10 in mandarin .. haha.

I have to credit this to the constant repetition through games, interaction sections with him. For recognising things, he is pretty ok but for recognising words, he is not too good. I guess different children learn differently. He is not interested to look at words ... so my words flash cards are still lying around untouched.

He has grown much ... it feels that he is almost 90cm ... din get to measure him but he really looks big for his age. Still at 13.5kg, he is eating very well. Attempted to cut his middle of the nite feed of 240ml but he is still not willing to give it up

ZQ @ Nov 2007

Marathon Charity Swim from Batam to Singapore - 11 Nov

A hectic weekend just passed. Hubby and a group of other ten swimmers - 11 swimmers swam on 11/11/2007 from Batam to Singapore. A total of 20 km was the original distance but in the end they swam more as the tides were pretty strong. When they were nearing SAF Yatch Club, they were swept by the strong currents towards the restricted zone and even the navy was alerted and on a few occassions, it triggered the siren. Finally it took them 7-8 hours to complete the swim.

It was definitely not an ordinary achievement. Who would dream of swimming such a distance and imagine from Batam! I had taken the boat ride to Batam and it is already a long enough journey. Imagine to swim that distance? On top of that, the kind of huge gigantic sea transports they have to be mindful of - the tankers, the ships, speedboats, sails, surfs .... and not to imagine the strong currents from Indonesia waters to International waters to Singapore. What about those sea creatures which might pose a danger to them? The jelly fishes, sea snakes .... and the unnatural items - plastic bags, oil spills, seaweeds, floating stuffs. One really takes a lot of courage to simply even imagine doing that swim - not to say, complete it.

Seeing them eventually complete the course one by one was a relieve and admiration. I have problem completing 1 km, not to say 20 times of that or more. I am happy that things went really well on Sun and no mishap occurred. The success of this swim means more of such in the future and more work for me ..... (having body aches and legs are aching big time), however, if it means to raise more funds to help the kids in Singapore, what is my little effort compared to the swimmers who braved the sea to swim that distance despite all the odds to do their bit for charity.

Birthday

My birthday just passed this week. Took a day out and we brought ZQ for a swim, he had good fun. While he was sleeping in the afternoon, hubby and I took time out for a buffet high tea at Goodwood park hotel - it's quite an enjoyable time and been a long time since we've done this after ZQ's birth. Should do this more often.

Having had our high tea, we went to sim lim square to look for some electronic gadgets. Had always wanted to have another slim camera as my current one is rather big - though it has good fetures, zoom, etc but it is cumbersome to bring it around. Hubby was also looking for one for his office. In the end, he bought a Casio Exilim with 7x zoom. It's quite cool and has quite shutter speed which is something he is looking for. The best part of it is that he has had a vv good bargain for it.

We shopped for it and the price started with 500+, went up to 600+ and in the end we bought it at 400+ - difference from the various shops was about $200 and some only 1 GB card but we got 2 GB. Hubby also bought an extra battery. It was fun and I did not know that the prices can vary so great - in fact, the camera we bought costs $669 in major shopping centres with 1GB card . So far we had been using it and it is fine.

Harvey Norman had a sale at Expo too and the price is at $669 .. so i wonder what kind of sale do u call it if they are selling it at the same price as any other shops.

Anyway, for Sim Lim, it is good to check around and also find out what are the freebies that comes with the deal, it differs from shop to shop. I must admit that electronic goods are so cheap in Singapore and we can easily afford them.

Regarding savings in price, that depends on if you have the time and energy to go scout around, else it is better to buy it at major shopping centres.

Talking about gadgets - ha, i have not buy birthday gift yet ... since hubby bought a camera for himself i can always borrow it. If i buy one for myself then we have too many cameras at home as he also just bought an SLR recently but does not know how to fully utilise it. Now i have to start looking around for another useful electronic gadget *thinking hard.

Evening, we had a cake cutting celebration where ZQ practiced his cake blowing again. He loves to blow the candles, singing birthday song, clapping.

ZQ looks like me - the nose and the mouth

Today a fren commented that ZQ looks like me - I am delighted. Few people in fact think that ZQ is my son, not even to say that he looks like me in any way. I hope my fren is not just humouring me (ahem, you know who you are) Then again, of course he looks like me .... he's my son u know. :)

Once, I brought him to a gathering with a group of mommies and their babies and one of the Ah-ma (grandma) spoke to me when I was carrying ZQ and she asked me "Which employer do you work for ah?" - shan't mention which mommy ... hehhe. I replied "Aye, this one is my son and my maid is standing over there". She felt so apologetic that she even apologised to me again on our next gathering.

Another time, I brought ZQ with my maid to a coffeeshop in chinatown. It was raining cats and dogs and I went to the counter to ask the cashier on directions to go somewhere in mandarin. She then said "Wa, your mandarin very good hor" - She tot that I was a maid bringing the kid and meeting up with another maid.

Even recently, I bought a TV and when the few young boys (prob working part time) came to deliver the TV, one of them asked me .... (note: at this point, my maid was carrying ZQ standing at the side) ... "Where is your madam? Is she home yet?". I almost flipped and told him "I am the mam".

Moral of the story : I better start dressing up and not be vv "LOC KOK" else if I were to go out with my hubby and ZQ, I might be mistaken as the maid.
Note : My maid is probably leaving for canada(if she passes her interview next week) and in reality, i am gonna assume the maid role in the near future. Same role but no pay!

Lying down on the floor

Recently I was so tired while playing with ZQ that I decided to just lie down on the hard floor. ZQ saw it and started imitating me. He tried lying down but his head will hit on the hard floor and I had to teach him how to lie down sideways.

These few weeks he had perfected his new stunt on lying down on the hard floor and he was proud to show it to me. Suddenly lying down and then smile to me. Of course, i praised him for being so clever to learn how to lie down on the floor without knocking on his head. Once, he even did it in the SK library - so dirty! Had to stop him but he insisted and so proud of it. Later, he started scratching his back ..... cos the carpet is really unclean if u ask me.

Chinese

Recently, ZQ learnt to say Xie Xie (thank you), BaBa(Papa), MaMa(mama) and many more. Here's how he says Papa, Xie Xie and Mama - I tot he sounded quite nice.

Ba Ba(Papa), Xie Xie (thank you)

Ma Ma (mama)

Going 19 months

Some things to record about ZQ at this stage of his life.

1. He is good at listening to instructions.

He is still obedient, hoping that his terrible 2 will not start soon. Still enjoying him very much.

2. He will take a cloth from the kitchen and wipe off the water if the floor is wet.

Often, it is caused by himself. Well, this is what I call creating work for oneself to do from nothing, hence, creating work. Isn’t tat what a lot of people are doing in the office?

3. He will pick up rubbish from the floor, table and throw it in the waste paper bin.
Sometimes I suspect if he is a clean freak in the making. He will find dirt, rubbish and then picks it up, go to the wastebin in the next room and throw it in. He has also learnt a bad habit from my MIL where he will rhrow it out of the window! I stopped him and told him not to ….. well, they are really learning a lot of things from us especially the bad ones.

Once I said “Shit” and next, we heard him repeating after me … I had to remind myself not to say this too casually.

4. When we tell him to say “yes” … instead of yes, he will say the word “Say” … so funny.
Somewhat I discover that he learns Chinese faster … perhaps it’s because at my IL house, we speak mainly mandarin.
Words he learnt
a) Flower – Hua. When I say flower, he says “Hua” – faintz.
b) Cat – Mao. He will say Mao Mao instead of cat – I hope he will not be confused in the future.
c) He knows BaBa, MaMa, YeYe, NaiNai, GuGu, Bao Bao, WaWa … also with his XieXie (thank you) haha, all the double words. Now he is learning to pronounce the words and some actually sound quite nice.

5. He can now eat by himself.

Had started training him earlier but when I came to my IL place, my MIL will not allow him to eat as she feels it’s messy. Only quite recently that he was given the freedom to explore himself. What can I say about different methods of bringing up the kid.

6. He can now pick different sets of keys and find the key to the gate, put it in.

He is short of learning how to turn it round 2 times! He can prob do it once. This is a real worry as he is rather tall and can access things on the table and sometimes climb on a chair (risky stunt) to retrieve things. Worried that he might just open the gate one day and walk out. Been telling them not to teach him or even let him see by accident how they turn the key and open the gate and of course, to keep the keys in a location not accessible by him.

6. He has learnt to say “Muak” and kissing with the loud muak sound.

7. He also knows how to say “Ha Ha” …. Sounds like an adult ....
Once, my maid was teaching him the Fiddle Diddle song and she said “The dog laughed” and goes “Ha Ha” …. He remembers and each time we say laughed … he will go “Ha Ha”.

Off the head, these are his progress updates.

8. He has learnt to stretch his hands into the armhole of his clothes.

9. He can remember where things are placed and even recognise which clothes is for whom.

My MIL and maid said that sometimes he will point to some of our clothes and say "BaBa", "Mama", "YeYe" ... so he actually knows who it belongs to.

10. He seems to remember where things are being placed too and he would try to put it back to the same position.

My hubby took a clock in my room down and left it on the table and ZQ discovered that it is not on the wall where we hang, he brought the clock to me and kept pointing to it and say "clock clock" ... so we had to put it back in place ... without the battery cos it was irritating my hubby's beauty tat's why he took it down in the first place.

Tarzan in the making?

Often when ZQ screams or making very loud noises, we'd ask him to do this. This distracts him and he will not continue to make a fuss. It works wonders. There are other times when he attempts to bite us and we'll say kiss kiss, in the end, he will kiss instead of biting. Of course there are accidents when we did not manage to distract him in time.

Museum

Went to the museum yesterday. ZQ seems to enjoy himself a great deal - not looking at the stuff but playing with the curtains.

Turning round and round

ZQ loves turning round and round nowadays.

Wheneven my hubby walks in front of him and faces him, talking to him ... ended up walking backwards, ZQ will also imitate. See him in action!

16 Tooth!

Forgot to track how long it had been since ZQ had his 16 tooths all grown out. Just realised that for this stage, it's completed.

Gotta check why his front teeth has some bit of white on it ... perhaps it was due to his bad fall when he was younger ... twice he fell and it knock on the hard floor ... and it bled badly .. full mouth of blood. It was rather scary and I remembered the ancient way of stopping blood flow - that is to put sugar into his mouth. His first taste of sugar was at a tender age of 4-5 months.

ZQ has a beautiful smile with his 2 little cute dimples which I strongly believe is inherited from me - otherwise it seems there's nothing much he inherits from me. He is a photocopy of his father except that he is much cuter.

He now tries to brush his own teeth but he is not good at it, hence we still have to brush it for him using the gloove and he bites real hard on it. Not an easy task sometimes. Though he drinks alot of water but his mouth sometimes stinks n perhaps that's due to his cough and the medicine he is taking.

This reminds me to start bringing him to see a dentist ... it's never to late to start young, isn't it?