All About Your Child

For most of you who have been ‘regulars’ here know what kind of person my MIL is. Whenever I talk about her, I’m never stingy on details *laugh*, but I don’t exaggerate ok!

Today when we were over there, as usual on Sundays, I witness something that made my heart feels good…. errrrmmm….even though I’m NOT supposed to…

My eldest BIL, whose family stays with her, is the ONLY one in the family who dares to shout at my MIL if he does not agree with her. And here’s the drama for today: -

Little 1 year old Weidong was playing with the sliding door that separates the kitchen from the living room. My MIL was worried that her grandson would accidentally hurt his fingers as he slides back and forth. After much scolding and warning the little cutie didn’t stop, she slapped his tiny hands. Weidong cried.

Few minutes later. When my BIL went into the kitchen, his son went back AGAIN to slide the door. This time, it wasn’t back and forth. He closed it completely, turned his head and gave a cheeky smile at all the spectators. I was waiting for a big reaction from my MIL.

Instead of another slap on his hand or scolding, my MIL laughed and clapped her hands, “You naughty boy, locked Papa in the kitchen eh?” *laugh*

My BIL slided the door opened and as he stepped out, he raised his voice at my MIL, “If I’m Weidong, I’ll be so confused! When I slide the door a moment ago, you scolded me and hit me. The next moment you are clapping and cheering. How in the world would I know if it is right to play with the door or not?!”

As usual, my cannot-be-defeated MIL started to answer with her nonsensical reasoning, “Just now he was sliding it back and forth. Now he didn’t, he just close it….”

Without giving her a chance to finish, my BIL snapped, “Aiya, you just don’t want to lose, just don’t want to admit that your actions are wrong. To Weidong, be it sliding the door back and forth or just close it, its the same! He still has his hands on the door!”

MIL felt she was embarrassed infront of the whole family repeated her case again, but my BIL just walked back into the bedroom without a word, because he knows her too well. She just doesn’t want to admit that she is wrong. Since her target was not interested in the argument, she turned to the forever-harmless FIL and started her long speech. As usual, FIL didn’t say a word, just sat there and listen to all her ramblings…. *laugh*

I’m happy because I wanted to say that too! But it wouldn’t make much impact as compared to my BIL, ‘cos he is talking about his son, whereas Weidong is just my nephew…. *laugh* I’m evil in this sense…. Not that I like to see my MIL being yelled at, but its always entertaining to see her and my BIL, the 2 most temperamental beings in the family having a drama like this. *laugh*

Children can understand a ‘lesson’ better when they get to ’see’ the rude fact staring back at them.

Remember the method I used to make my boys realised how too-much-TV-watching can spoil their eyes?

Seeing is more convincing than just words for the young minds.

When I saw these photos in my mailbox, I asked them over to have a look. The pictures speak for itself.

Me: “Babies, can you see these children or people are so skinny and some of them are dying because they do not have food to eat and water to drink? We are very fortunate. We have potato chips to eat (they happened to be eating it at that moment), but they don’t even have proper food to eat. So what do all these pictures tell you?”

Keatkeat: “Cannot waste food. Must finish all our food.” Looking down at his potato chip as he took another bite.

Binbin: “Must finish my potato chip”

Me: *Eyes rolled* “Its not just potato chips my dear…whenever you have food to eat, ANY FOOD, you MUST try to finish it because these people don’t even have one grain of rice to eat. Food is important because it makes us grow taller and stronger…”

Binbin: “Just like my Papa…”

Me: *laugh* “Ya… like your Papa” (stole a glance at the 1.63m tall man sitting on the sofa munching the potato chips)

There are organisations who are dedicated to help children like these, who would love to go the extra mile to make this Christmas that much more special for the unfortunate ones, you can support them in my previous post

Christmas is often packaged with lots of dazzling decorations with glittering rainbow lightings. Everyone is so encompassed by the beauty and fun, few remember that there are people, especially young children suffering in other parts of the world; away from all these Jingle Bells and Santa Claus.

Children in Payatas, Philippines have always been wishing for the appearance of Santa or an Angel, to come to their rescue. All they need is a decent meal, clean water and a shelter without holes in it.

My cousin, Esther had been there many years back on a missionary trip. When she came back, the whole experience changed her life. She used to be one who believed that once a person is full, he/she should stop eating. But after she saw how the children run towards the garbage truck, like little kids running towards Santa hoping to get one gift from his big red bag of presents, just to dive in to what most people would run away from…. they dig for food. Tiny pieces of what seemed decomposed food to put into their mouth. And ‘THAT‘ could be their only meal for the day. Now, the ‘changed‘ Esther finishes everything on her plate.

Totedaddy and Lighthouse Center for Children Foundation are their Santa Claus and their Angel for Christmas this year. Praise God for them. Support them over here, all you need to do is sacrifice the amount for that extra can of coke or that packet of potato chips and with that little, you can actually help thousands of Children in Payatas….. If you had donated….Myself and many prominent supporters for the good cause, from footballers (from both Manchester United & Arsenal!), politicians, celebrities …..Thank you from the bottom of our hearts….

Here’s the extract from the main site: -

The landfill in Payatas, The Philippines, is notoriously known the world over as Smokey Mountain. For over 35 years, the smoking dump site has grown to become a stark and heart-tugging reminder of the desperate conditions of humanity.

On a daily basis, children pick through newly arrived garbage to collect material to sell. The earnings made by one child are not
enough to even buy food for the day. Hence, entire families are forced to climb the mountain each day, hoping to earn enough to feed everyone. Children as young as four years old are forced to work in this daily struggle for survival.

In response to the plight of these children, Totedaddy is working with Lighthouse Center For Children Foundation to bring a little cheer to the children this Christmas.

Totedaddy has kicked off with a cash sponsorship of USD 10,000 to enable the children to celebrate Christmas. FusionExcel International has also pitched in a USD 5,000 in cash sponsorship. The money raised will help fund the projects already in place, and help fund additional projects aimed at providing better housing, and a means of livelihood for the Payatas community.

It is hoped that by creating better awareness to the plight of these children, more support can be garnered towards their betterment. Together we can bury poverty!

I did!!! but it wasn’t round or long and shapely… it was diarrhea!!! *Eeeewwww*

Have a great Weekend, Everyone! *laugh*

Ling passed me this tag. Thank you girl! I think I’m more like the DOG! *laugh*

Four places I go over and over:
- my house, my in-laws’ house, the coffeeshop behind my block and my boy’s school (though I’m taking a long break for the next 5weeks *wink*)

Four people who email me regularly:
- I don’t have a particular person whom I consider a ‘regular’ (i.e. daily) But I do receive emails from groups like (I’m such a rule-breaker): -

the infamous Spammers, the auto notification from mommies’ Forums, the auto notification from Facebook and then there are these groups of ‘unknown companies’ who kept asking me to consider their penis-enlargement pills, no matter how many times I tell them I don’t have one! *laugh*

Four of my favorite places to eat:
- my MIL’s home-cooked food, Jacks Place, Sakae Sushi and the McDonalds at Tea Garden.

Four places you’d rather be:
- Japan, Africa, London and Egypt

Four TV shows I could watch over and over:
- Oh dear! I know I broke a rule already, can I break another? I guess I can… cos’ the TV shows I could think of, I can’t remember the English name for them. So can I strike off ‘TV shows’ and replace it with ‘MOVIES’ : -

The Never Ending Story, Face-Off, Speed and Little Mermaid (Disney)

Four people I think will respond:
- Suhanya, KiNiGu, Sandra and 3lilangels

We were disappointed when we knew we had missed the milking session in our previous visit to the Hay Diaries Goat Farm. So this morning all 4 of us were up early at 8am… the boys were so eager to go, it wasn’t a problem to get them ready at all.

Some of the teats were so huge, it couldn’t quite fit ‘nicely’ into the pump and the men had to use their hands to express some milk first before its ’small’ enough to fit into the automated pump.

What amazed me was when one batch has been pumped dry, the in-charge would unlock the gate and the goats know their way back ‘home’ without being guided by any human, as the next ‘unpumped’ goats took over the ’stage’. Wow! Throughout the session, my boys were so full of questions, “Mommy, why this and why that…” or “Papa, how come this goat do this and do that…” *laugh* They enjoyed it! Yeah!

Their very first taste of goats’ milk. Hmmm…. they didn’t like it as much as their Dumex milk powder. After one sip, Mommy had to finished the rest of it, ‘cos Papa dislike the smell. Luckily the bottle isn’t that big. Anyway, its just S$2, how big can the bottle be…*eyes rolled*

This time I was ready to spend more (time & money) on the feeding. Instead of getting one miserable packet of grasses, I bought 2 packets ~ S$4.

I was happy even though I spent S$6 at the farm… the boys had a great time! After the feed, they even requested to stay for a while longer to look at the young goats playing around with each other.

But I wasn’t that happy when I saw what happened to a familiar ‘Grandpa’ goat I met during our previous visit.

There was a huge lump hanging on his neck. It was as big as a tennis ball and the skin had split opened, like the way you would cut your orange, revealing the red-sore-flesh under that thin skin… *Ouch*

I wonder if it was a tumour…. hmmm… I wonder how painful can that be…. *frown*

I didn’t realised that things hasn’t been going well lately till Ann pointed it out when she commented on yesterday’s post. From the dispute over the speed of eating, the virus, the ‘Red Days’ symptoms and whatever ‘unhappy’ things which I may have left out…. well, at least the beginning of this week seemed that much better…

First, I saw myself on TV. *Laugh* Remember? The Working Mothers Forum? I was one of the panelist on stage? The feeling was weird! Though it was less than a 2seconds shot, but still, I know it was me up on that stage alright… *laugh* But Allan was a little disturbed when he realised that they didn’t write my name… Oh well, that didn’t bother me at all, ‘cos my face is MORE important than my name… *laugh*

Then, I tried to ‘compromise’ on the food aspect. Whenever Allan joins us for a meal, I’ll give them a smaller portion than usual. A couple of hours later, I’ll let them snack. Giving smaller portions during meal time didn’t improve their speed but it shortens the waiting time for the big man, the time to wait for the kids to FINISH their plate or bowl of whatever.

At the same time, I try to avoid giving too much meat, cos’ they will take a longer time to chew on it, even though I’ve already ‘tore’ it into smaller pieces. That’s the best I could do, and so far for the past 6 meals with Allan, it seems that its working, although he still chants his usual line, “Eat faster… Bite… Chew… Swallow…Faster…” But whenever my man is NOT with us, its back to their usual portions, chatting and laughing as they eat… Well, though it ‘may’ confused the kids, but so far, this method is working and EVERYONE feels less stressful during meal time. *Hooray*

Then an hour ago, *Yeah* my boys, especially my younger one doesn’t need me to pat his bum before he could slip into dreamland! In fact, tonight was the very first time Allan could tuck them in bed! Probably because Allan promised to bring them to the Goat Farm again tomorrow morning! *laugh* Who knows?! Anyway it goes to show that their Anti-Dad cells are dying… *Yeah*

May more of such good stuff continue to come for the rest of the week, the month, the year and many years to come….*laugh* ….. this sounded like a New Year’s Greeting… *laugh* Yeah! I’m laughing… that’s ANOTHER good thing… *wink*

In Spite of being completely dumb-founded after accidentally ‘approved’ the entry of a computer virus YESTERDAY, I still had to be a smiling Mommy.

In Spite of being completely helpless to the undying pop-ups of warnings minutes after minutes, I still have to be a Mommy capable of making my kids enjoy every minute of their school holidays.

In Spite of NOT being able to do what I love (blogging and blog hopping) and feeling agitated all over, I still had to control my temper and NOT vent them on my lovable boys.

In Spite of the ‘Red Days’ symptoms almost tearing me apart, I still need to make sure that everything is in-place for the kids.

In Spite of all of the above, I still have to be the Mommy my boys love to play with, the Mommy who makes them happy just by jumping around to the ‘Imagination Movers’ songs with them…

In Spite of being a completely soul-less Mommy yesterday, my subconsciousness still managed to slap me hard with a fabulous idea, “Get out of the house. Go see the Christmas Lightings at Orchard Road”

In Spite of forgetting to bring along the camera (which is so not-me), we had a great 2hours of being encompassed by dazzling Christmas decorations. (I swore I will bring my camera the next time I’m there which is probably in a few days time!)

Sometimes I’m really surprise by my own patience. In times when I SHOULD FLARE up, I don’t. Yet there are times I could have controlled myself and I can’t. How weird?!

In Spite of our (my Sis and I) disagreements in the past, she is still the ONLY angel who come to my rescue just before the awful day ended.

Friends in Facebook knows how grateful I am to my sis…. but I just wanna say again, “Thank you Sis! Without doing what you did, I won’t be able to type this post at all today.”