Since birth, K has always been on the small side. Her birth weight was 2.495 kg and after almost a year, she only managed to reach 5 kg. The doctors and dieticians were very concerned about her growth, and I would say that they were definitely even more concerned than I was. Let me clarify, it was not that I was ignorant or tried to dismiss any medical condition she might have. It was just that Ch was also very small to begin with, and she is definitely still very small as compared to her Primary 1 friends. So, the two sisters might have the small-sized gene.

After struggling with K's fussy eating habits for a few months, coupled with frequent visits to the feeding clinic, the doctors finally decided that it was time for her to be put on the Nasogastric Tube (or NG tube). On 1 Aug this year, she was admitted to the hospital to have the tube inserted and I stayed with her for the next three days. I was sad that I had to put her through this process, and uncertain if she would have the side effects which I read from various online sources. I blamed myself a lot. Perhaps she wouldn't have to go through this if I had tried harder to overcome her fussy eating habits. Or perhaps, if I had been more persistent in training her to use the milk bottle, she would have fattened up a lot more.


The doctor who inserted the NG tube did not allow me to stay in the room to observe. Standing outside, I felt so helpless when K screamed loudly all of a sudden. I cried and blamed myself more. The medical staff managed to calm her down before opening the door for us to reunite, but K still looked traumatised by the tube insertion process.

The stay at the hospital was tiring. I was kept awake by the other 5 patients sharing the room, and by the medical staff who came in every 3 hours to tube feed her. Each tube feeding session lasted about 20 mins- with one nurse holding the NG tube to pour the formula milk in, and another to carry her if she was fussy. I also had to learn the steps to tube feed her myself. Before each feed, a check had to be done to see if the tube was placed in the correct position. I had to aspirate and test the liquid with blue litmus paper. The tube also had to be held at a certain position above her head so that the milk would flow into her stomach at a suitable rate to prevent her from vomiting. 


Thank God for K's sweet nature. She wasn't really fussy during each tube feed, and was so cooperative with the student nurses that I was able to have my meals at the food court in the hospital. The nurses loved her and kept telling me how friendly and smiley she was. 


I became very reliant on the NG tube after a while, as it got easier each time I used it. Plus after I changed her tube to one with a wider diameter, the feeding duration was cut down to just 5 mins. However, a nagging thought was always at the back of my mind- that we must get her off the tube as soon as we can. It pained me to see her scream with fear each time a new NG tube was inserted. But doctors will only approve if she has a constant weight gain to the desired range, and that she needs to use the cup or milk bottle for the milk feeds.

At 16 months old, I'm happy to say that she is off the NG tube, and has successfully gained 1.5 kg since August. 

Photo credit

Our family loves The Avengers movie, and we watched it again for the third time during our recent Movies Night. It was then that L decided he wanted to be dressed up as Thor for the school Halloween party. I tried to persuade him to be The Incredible Hulk instead. After all, all it takes is some green face paint and a pair of pants for this costume. Easy peasy. He refused, insisting that he wanted to be Thor. Eventually, I managed to convince him to be Hawkeye instead. He loves Hawkeye anyway, and the movie has the hero dressed mostly in black, so it'll be easier for me to make the costume. 


I started googling for DIY tutorials four days before the school party and found a very informative site by Life Sprinkled With Glitter. So thankful for her instructions, else I would probably see a disappointed L wearing a skeleton costume. 

The following day, I went to two big neighbourhood malls but could not find a single black tank top for boys! Can you believe that? In the end, hubby found a black tee from Art Friend and we cut off the sleeves. Also got L a pair of black jeans and a belt to go with the Hawkeye look. 

Making the bow:
The DIY tutorial suggested using a PVC pipe to make a bow which really works and is safe to shoot. I used a long paper roll instead. Wouldn't want to risk having 20 children playing and shooting one another with the bow and arrows. 

I made two slits across the points shown by the red arrows and bent the paper roll to form a curve. Then I taped the whole roll with black duct tape. You'll need to reinforce the two parts which bend with more duct tape. 



Next, I poked a hole at each end of the paper roll and attached a string through the holes by tying a knot at each end. 

To position the arrow easily, I poked a small hole through the centre of the paper roll and forced the plastic part of a syringe through, then cut off the excess part of the syringe. The plastic syringe was also sprayed black to create a uniformly black look. 



I also added two tapes at the centre of the string (near the plastic syringe) to help L position his arrow more easily. 


Making the quiver:



This was done using a cylinder tube from a courier service. I cut the tube to fit the diagonal length of L's body. Sprayed it with black paint and glued a strap to the top and bottom of the tube using hot glue gun and taped with black duct tape. The strap was from those free bags which I received from attending conferences and seminars. Really felt good reusing the things I collected years ago.  



Making the arrows:



Hubby bought these two wooden sticks from Art Friend, but you can use anything that's long enough. My other alternative would be those wooden sticks we carry our paper lanterns with during the Mooncake Festival. I glued a small bead at one end of the stick and sprayed the whole thing black. 

Making the finger glove:
Followed the instructions from Life Sprinkled With Glitter to make the finger glove. Hubby found black leather scraps and handicraft rings from Art Friend. I measured the length of a piece of leather around the wrist of L to make the rectangular-shaped wrist band. Remember to leave enough space for your Velcro strip. The Velcro strips were glued onto the leather wrist band using hot glue gun. 



Next, I cut three thin strips of leather, each with the width of L's finger. One end of the strip was wrapped around the ring and hot-glued. Then the other end of all the three strips was hot-glued to the rectangular wrist band. 

Note: I tried to stitch the leather straps together, as well as the Velcro strip, onto the wrist band... but it was so difficult. The leather was too thick for hand-stitching and my fingers got poked too much that I gave up. Maybe thin leather-like fabric will work much better. 


Making the armguard:
Followed instructions from Life Sprinkled With Glitter to make the armguard. Hawkeye wore two armguards in The Avengers movie, but I think it's cool enough with just one armguard. 



Using black elastic band, I measured L's arm (between the wrist and elbow) at three spots and hand-stitched each piece into a ring. Be sure to leave a little extra length for each circle as you will need to overlap the band when you stitch it together. Then the last elastic band goes along the arm to connect the three elastic rings and form the armguard.  



L was so happy and excited on the day of the Halloween party. He said he didn't tell the teachers what he would be dressed as, 'cause he wanted it to be a surprise! 

Hawkeye shooting at vampire teacher

[Updated on 12 Oct 2015] Hop over to check out our Easy DIY Sea Quest costume for L!