When my brother and I were little, my mother used to give us a teaspoon of Maltexo every day. It is a malt extract which has a similar texture to thick honey or molasses. It is full of “natural goodness” and my mother thought it a good supplement to our diet, seeing as we didn’t eat anything.
I recently bought a new container of it mainly for my boys. And I have some down with some sort of cold or flu so tonight I had a teaspoon of it. Gosh, it tasted good and brought back so many nice memories of our childhood. The boys like it too – they only get a little under 1/2 a teaspoon at a time though.
Filed under: family
It was Guy Fawkes day today and this evening we went to my parents’ place for dinner and to set off some fireworks. The boys had a great time and J loved the sparklers. N thought they were pretty cool too but we didn’t let him hold his own – he can do that next year, that is, if we are still able to buy them.
We took N to see the nurse for the 8th time to get his burns redressed. The good news is, he is healing so well, that we don’t need to go back again! His face is still a little tender and pink and we will have to be extra careful that he doesn’t get burned this coming Summer, but we doubt he will have any scaring. His arm is also doing very well. The burn under his neck is still a bit raw, but that too should hopefully heal without any scarring.
Filed under: family
Those who know J, know that he is a little speech delayed. His speech is coming along nicely but sometimes he still comes out with funny ways of saying things. We do try and correct him, as we should, but some of the words are words that make him him!
I just had some Vogel’s toast for breakfast and he got all excited, and asked me if he too could have some bread with sprinkles. Sprinkles being the nuts and seeds which are cooked into the loaf.
He also uses sprinkles to explain the sesame seeds that are sometimes used on the Sushi we buy.
When I was making a cake last night for L to take to work today, J asked me “mamma, what are you doing? Spinning?”. Yes, stirring in J’s language is spinning. “Please mamma, can I spin it?”. 
N also appears to have a similar speech delay as the only word he really says at 18 months is mamma, although we think he is making a valiant effort at bird, book and ball.
Filed under: family
We returned once more to the A&E yesterday morning as N took a little fall and split open the area above his right eye. The skin is just so fragile there, that it just peeled away and it bleed so much. The doctor, on seeing the broken skin, immediately prescribed some antibiotics. So three times a day, N gets Pamol, Augmentin, and the burn repair cream on his face.
Today, fortunately, we get to return to our regular doctor’s office where we know the nurses well and hopefully they will do a better job of dressing N’s burns. We are also going to try and get N seen by a doctor there, just to have a second opinion re the severity of the burns and the scarring issue.
Filed under: family
We took N back to A&E to get his wounds redressed this morning. Again, he was so well behaved. Do kids know it is better to behave well when they are sick or hurt?
The cream they are using on his arm and neck area is Silver sulfadiazine but they won’t use it on the face because it tends to cause the skin to go permanently gray. They were happy to leave his face to heal by itself, telling us there will be no scarring. However, as parents, we are a bit more wary and so bought a topical ointment that the clinic recommended, Mebo Burn Repair. One of its main ingredients is Sesame Oil, so after application, N tends to smell a bit funny.
We have to return to A&E tomorrow for another dressing change.
This morning I had my worst driving lesson ever. I have very little confidence as it is and I am a very reluctant driver, and that is why I have held my learner’s license since 1994! Anyway, it was my 9th lesson today and I just seemed to do everything wrong and I was so very anxious and the instructor didn’t do anything to help the situation. I don’t I am going to have any more lessons with him. I know all the key driving skills – well, I have been taught them – so now I just need practice and to raise my confidence level again.
However, what made the day worse was when I came home from driving to see my mother, who had been sitting with the boys, holding N, who is 18 months old, wrapped in wet towels. She had made herself a cup of coffee, and put it on the bench, thinking that it would be out of N’s way. But it wasn’t. He is much taller than we give him credit for. He brought down the steaming hot coffee and spilled it and burned his face, neck and arm, all on his right hand side. Mum called our doctor’s office who told her about the wet towels and then said to take him to Accident and Emergency when I got home. So that is what we did. Mum also called her friend, Jane, to sit with J, so at least we didn’t have to take J with us.
I sat in the backseat of the car with N on my lap, as we were worried about putting him into a carseat. When we got there, we were lucky to recognize Margaret, who used to work at our doctor’s office. I told her that “my baby is burned” and she took us in right away. A doctor assessed him and the burns aren’t that bad, but of course they are bad enough. The burns on his arm and neck had blistered and so were covered with cream and bandaged up, but nothing was done to his face. It was hard at that stage to determine where the burns on the face were due to his crying. He was actually really good at A & E – a real little trouper. We will have to go back tomorrow and Sunday and probably Monday too, depending on how well he heals.
Poor little guy. 
My Dad is on a low fiber diet at least for the next 3 weeks and some sweets he can have are marshmellows and meringues. We bought him some marshmellows from the supermarket, but the store meringues are a bit dry, so I decided to whip him up a batch myself.
I followed Nigella’s recipe for Wedding Meringues from her “Feast” recipe book. I actually halved the recipe and still ended up with a ton of meringues. They tasted pretty good – they were nice and gooey and marshmallow-like on the inside.
And my Dad and Mum were impressed, and that is what counts, right?
