Should I withdraw my 3 year old son from school?

We sent Enrique to school in March, throughout these 6 months, on and off he get sicks and sometimes, really bad. Most of the time are cough with thick green mucus and fever. Usually after 3-5 days, he is well to go back to school again.

The weather in Madrid is getting worst now till Feb/Mar and many children and people will get sick again. Our paediatrician (PD) has been telling us to terminate him from school as the environment is bad for children under 3 years old. She shared that the virus / bacteria he will gets from the school is more serious than if he had stayed at home. Bringing him to the park or street in the morning and play with those children at the playground is fine as those children are also not going to school means that they are more healthy than those who went to the school. When children reach 4 years old, their immune system is stronger and even if they do get sick, it is usually easier to treat and recover.

Last week, Enrique started with diarrhoea followed by fever and cough with thick green mucus. He has been going to the toilet more than 12 times a day and had fever for the past 7 days. Till now he is still not not improving. We were very worried as he is feeling agitated, can't sleep well, cough often and cry a lot. It was really taxing for us as parents and furthermore, I was sick as well. PD diagnosed that he has a virus infection and all these are the effect of the virus which there is no medicine to treat. Antibiotic is only to treat when there is a bacterial infection. Therefore, his body has to fight the virus himself.

Being a mother, I really cannot stand the sight of him going thru the sickness as it is too hard for him to handle at this age. During the past 7 days, he had seen the PD for 4 times as I was really worried about his condition.

At this point, I am in a dilemma as I am considering to withdraw him from school so that he will not get so sick again. On the other hand,  I would like him to go to school to socialise, play, learn and be independent. Furthermore, he enjoys going to school.

In short, I think Madrid is not at good place for young children to live in. For myself, I get sick more often than I was in Singapore. I spoke to other parents and they also said that it is the weather and their children gets sick easily as well.

Please share with me your experience when your young child was sent to school and did you also have the same problem? Have you thought of withdrawing your child from the school or what's your decision.

Bedtime routine

I believe every family will have your own bedtime routine. For my family, the routine is, me making milk for Enrique while he choose his book and his daddy with read to him before he falls asleep.

Enrique has been sick for the past 7 days from diarrhoea, cough with phlegm and fever. He doesn't sleep well every night and of course, his daddy continue to read a book to him. But today, I was the one who read to him before he fell asleep. While he was sleeping, he cough and cry a lot. He makes noise mumbling this and that but we do not know what he wants. At 2.00am, he cried again and said he wants daddy and daddy and daddy but we cannot figured out what he wants from his daddy.

I asked Eric if he had promised something to Enrique, he said nothing. And then Enrique was saying, I want something, pointing to the direction of the books that his daddy usually left after reading to him.
So I asked, do you want book? Yes,….daddy…daddy. And I asked, you want daddy to read to you? YES!!! Both of us giggled as it was just so funny. He remembers the routine is not complete without his daddy reading to him. They read on the bed and he ask for milk and he fell asleep again.

Goodnight to all.

Lisbon, Portugal

In November 2012, we visited Lisbon, Portugal with a small group of relatives for 2 nights. We took an hour flight from Madrid and rented a Renault scenic. It was a raining season in Lisbon so the photos are mostly with grey sky.

We covered the Elevador de Santa Justa, Padrao dos Descobrimentos, Torre de Belém, Cristo Rei Statue,The 25th of April Bridge, Praca do Comercio and walk around the neighbourhoods area of Bairro Alto and Chiado.

On the 2nd day, we drove to Cabo de Roca. It is the most western point of Portugal and continental Europe. The scenery is breathtaking and stunning. And in the evening we headed to Fatima to take a look at the most important catholic shrines.

On the last day, for our breakfast, we went to try the original Portuguese egg tart from Pastéis De Belém. Oh….saying it reminds me of the tasty tarts. I ate 4 of it! It's really a must try when you are at Belém.

Elevador de Santa Justa
I think it is not worth it to go up as the view is not fantastic

The view with drizzling rain

Praca do Comercio

Padrao dos Descobrimentos

The view from Padrao dos Descobrimentos

The view from Padrao dos Descobrimentos

The view from Padrao dos Descobrimentos

Torre de Belém

Cabo de Roca

Cabo de Roca 

Cabo de Roca 

Cabo de Roca

Fatima
The most important catholic shrines in the world dedicated to the Virgin Mary

Fatima

Pastéis De Belém 

Pastéis De Belém

Cristo Rei Statue

The 25th of April Bridge

Shopping for clothing as a gift

I LOVE Shopping… weather it's for me or for someone else, I just love it.

Summer sales in Madrid starts on 1 July and ends 31 August every year. Because of the recent economy crisis some shops have extended the sales period. 

Two weeks ago, while I was doing window shopping around my place I found a fashion shop selling mature clothing are still on sales. I hopped in hoping to find some suitable ones for my mother and mother in law. Guess what? I really found a few pieces and these are from Spain. The lady boss is kind enough to give me further discount as I bought 6 pieces over 2 days. Each piece is about 10 to 12 euros, which I think its really worth it for the design and the material. 

Asian food in Madrid

Sometimes we are tired of the Spanish food and we craved for the asian food.  Furthermore, my hubby prefers Chinese style or rather noodles than rice, soupy than dry food.

Over these years, we have tried many and I would like to recommend the following if you are in Madrid and would like to try them. Well, I believe there are other better ones than these…. yet to find out. 

• Asia Gallery (cantonese)
• El Bund restaurante (cantonese and shanghainese)
• Buen Gusto restaurante chino (wenzhou)
• 国荣海鲜大排档 (local china dishes)
• Cocina Asiatica (teppanyaki and chinese) 
• Samurai (japanese)
• Pui's Thai Tapas (authentic thai)
• Phuket Thai restaurant

Some pictures of what we have tried to satisfy our cravings.

Indian restaurant at Lavapiés but forgot the name of the restaurant

Aisa Gallery

Pui's Thai Tapas

China Té Restaurant

Samurai

Oishii

Meals for young children while traveling

Traveling with both young babies is really a big headache for me especially on their meals. Enrique is quite a choosy eater and Eduardo is still on semi solid food. And also, in Spain, the dishes are very salty which is not suitable for young children. With them, I always have to bring along a small rice cooker and a kettle as they both need to drink milk. I had a few bad experiences trying to get hot water from the hotels in Spain. Therefore, I prefer to bring my own kettle so that I do not need to go around begging people.

On a typical 3 days 2 nights holiday, I will prepare cereals and bottled puree for Eduardo. For Enrique, I will bring some rice, macaroni and few packets of instant noodles, chicken stock cube (no msg added) and some veg such as carrot and broccoli, hot dog and frozen marinated meat. During our recent trip to Santander, I bought eggs in one of the supermarket too.

During holidays, I am busier than I am not. I have to wake up 2-3 hours before the set off time to prepare the children breakfast and lunch.

In the morning, I will feed both with a bottle of milk with additional some bread or porridge.

For Enrique lunch, I cook either porridge/ macaroni/ noodles with vegetables/ hotdog/ meat. All using half cube of the chicken stock for some taste. So far, Enrique has enjoyed the prepared food although it might not seems to be a healthy meal but at least he is full and he also take some food that we eat for our meals. If possible, we will try to return to the hotel in the late afternoon for them to rest and I will feed them dinner before we go out for our own dinner. If can't we will find something that suits Enrique.

For Eduardo, I gave him either cereal or bottled puree for his meals. I was lucky that he eats the bottled puree that his Paediatrician recommended. Previously, when Enrique was younger, he doesn't take the bottled puree at all. So you can imagine, how difficult it was for him as I only fed him with cereals and milk, sometimes with some baby biscuits and bread.

When I was living in Singapore, giving baby bottled puree is a 'NO NO' for me as I cook every meals for Enrique. I believe to give him the best and fresh food. But after living in Spain for sometime, I have seen many parents giving their babies bottled puree. I changed my perception after consulting their Paediatrician. It was really much easier for travellers and getting it warm at most of the restaurants are convenient as well. Therefore, since young, I trained Eduardo to eat bottled puree once a week to cater for travelling or when necessary.

I also brought a container and sterilising tablet for their bottles when Eduardo was before one year old. Now, I just used hot water to rinse. Detergents, sponge, table cloth and their bowls and spoons are also a must. All these items already occupied one small luggage. You might think that I am a crazy mum to bring so many items for holiday. Yap, I agree too, sometimes, I think going holiday is really chore but I still enjoy doing all this for my children.

I guess the rice cooker and the kettle are now part of our travel companion and it will be with us for at least another 1.5 years or when Eduardo starts to eat solid. Sometimes, we use the rice cooker to cook instant noodles for ourselves when we are too tired or lazy to go out for food. Do you also bring along rice cooker or kettle when you go for long holiday?

Vienna, Austria

When Eric told me that he has to go Vienna for a business trip in end July, I was jumping up and down for joy as I had heard a lot about this beautiful city and wanted so much to witness  it myself. We were there for 3 nights and of it, one and a half day is gone for business. Still, we managed to cover the Historic centre of Vienna, the Zoo and the cannot missed original Sacher-Torte (Chocolate cake). 

Vienna is the capital of Austria, it is also known as the City of Music. The Historic centre of Vienna is listed as one of the World Heritage List.  The main tourist attractions includes Schonbrunn Palace, Schonbrunn Zoo (the oldest in the world), State Opera House, Rathaus (New City Hall), St Stephen's Cathedral and a few other museums.

After his meeting on the second day afternoon, we took train to the city centre and check in at Austria Trend Hotel Europa Wien, the location is fantastic and the the price is reasonable too. For your information, the air tickets to Vienna and all the hotels are really expensive compared to other parts of Europe. But it is worth it after all.

Below are some photos of our visit at Vienna.

The above is Kangaroo meat, it's more tender than beef.

The original Sacher-Torte at Cafe Sacher Wien

With young children, going to the Zoo is one of the itineary to keep them occupied