All About Your Child

End of Co-Sleeping Days
When it comes to kids, “Go With The Flow” is my motto. When kids are not ready for the next step in their lives, parents should not force.

Its the same for weaning. Do it gradually. Do it when your child shows signs that he or she is ready for the change. If not, never force for convenience sake. Unless circumstances do not allow excess time for procrastination.

One year ago, my boys have been asking, “Mummy, when can I have my own bed?”

They had been sleeping on the floor all these years. Not literally of ‘cos!

They do not have their own beds, just mattresses on the floor. When their mattresses are placed on the floor beside our queen size bed, that is exactly the length of my room. So there are no inches left for any bed frames to fit into my room.

Thus I often reply, “Wait till Ah Yee gets married and moves out, then the two of you can put your beds in her big room.”

And so they waited.

Waited for the marriage proposal…
Waited for the confirmation of the wedding date…
Waited for the preparation days…
Waited for the final day…

Their many waits were over by 6th December 2011.

Keatkeat wanted to sleep in my sister’s room that very night she got married, but everyone was too tired to shift the furniture in her room when we reached home at 1:00am plus after the wedding dinner; so Keatkeat had to wait for another day.

7th December morning, we started to shift the furniture in my sis’s ex-room, but there was little we could do because most of her things were still intact. We just managed to shift enough for Keatkeat to move his mattress over to sleep on the floor.

The boys and I had a pact.
When they have their own room, I will stop sitting beside them and watch them enter into dreamland every night. Instead, I will hug and kiss them, tuck them in bed, say “Good Night” and leave them alone in the room.

Binbin was not as ready as his elder brother, so he continued to sleep in my room, while Keatkeat slept in his new room, which is big enough to fit almost 4 queen size beds, all by himself. *Grin*

Binbin still prefers to have me beside him, watching him falls asleep slowly… One hand and one leg on me, hugging me like a bolster….

So how was Keatkeat first night?

A little afraid.
So I took out my Little Twin Stars night light from my Little Twin Stars collectible box and ‘lend‘ it to him.
After that, he fell asleep on his own without any issue. *Thumbs Up*

8th December morning, Keatkeat told me that he had good dreams throughout the night. One of it was with his Ah Yee. Guessed he misses her dearly… Then he said to his younger brother, “Binbin, you should sleep in this room if you want to have good dreams. This room gives  you good dreams.”

Oh man! It worked!

Binbin made a decision there and then to sleep in their playroom cum bedroom that night.

So how was Binbin’s first night? PERFECT with the night light switched on.

9th December night.
Binbin refused to sleep and said he wanted me to lie beside him in the new room. I reminded him of our agreement. Expecting him to rebut me with his usual lengthy reasoning, instead he walked back into the room and fell asleep in less than 10mins. *Thumbs Up* Aaawww… my boy has really grown up….

There after, my 6 year old and 8 year old had been enjoying their room. They play there, sleep there, quarrel there, make up there… it IS their all in one room.

Though my Little Twin Stars night light is still needed to give Binbin that extra sense of security, I am happy that they are finally able to fall asleep without the need for me to be beside them.

*Thumbs Up*

Now, the next challenge would be the beds, which are coming this Saturday. Will they wake up in the middle of the night with their faces flat on the floor? *Shrugged*

We will find out after Saturday…

*fingers crossed*

End of Co-Sleeping Days

Does Your Child have these Bad Habits
Now that his friend reads my blog, I think it is better not to mention his name in this particular post. Well, I have more than one child. So take your pick and guess which child am I referring to…

Alright, my parent-child relationship with this boy of mine has been more of an uphill ride than anything else. Today, I am not going to talk about bad behaviour like being rude or lack of respect. This time my focus is on physical bad habits. These are his current bad habits that are driving Allan and I nuts!

1. He likes to stick out his tongue whenever he speaks. Almost very word he says has the ‘th-sound’ in it.

2. He often ask questions that none of us can understand and we need to probe many times before we finally understand what he is trying to ask. For example, “Mummy, why like that?” he asked pointing at something nowhere.

Me: “What like that?”
He: “Why not straight?”
Me: “What is not straight?!”
He: “That picture.”
Me: “Which picture?!!!”
He: “There! That picture on the lamp pole!”
Me: “That picture is straight! Why do you say its not straight?!”
He: “I mean the table in the picture is not straight, can’t you see?!”
*Super Eyes Rolled*

3. He likes to eat like a dog. He does not like to scoop up his food and put inside his mouth. He likes to scoop the food to the edge of the plate or bowl and bend his head down to eat from the edge of the plate or bowl.

4. He needs to pass motion in the middle of his meal. Either lunch or dinner time. This happens 98 times out of 100! Its especially irritating when we are eating at a coffeeshop whereby there is no toilet paper and obviously the Gents toilet seats are wet with urine. *eyes rolled*

To me, I think it is a health issue more than anything. This habit in particular does NOT drive me crazy, but it sure lit up the flame in his dad, who would scream at him whenever he says while he is still eating, “I want to go pass motion.” Because after accompanying my boy to the toilet, his dad has no more appetite to eat.

5. When you ask him to do something, eg. Wipe The Table. He would say cheerfully, “Ok!” And he would slap the wet cloth on the table, slide it across the table once to the left, once to the right and say “DONE!’ To him, so long as the table is wiped, it is done. He would argue, “You didn’t say it has to be every part of the table.” So everything that is instructed must be precise to the very last point! *faint*

6. Whenever Allan or I tell him to stop doing something, he would reply cheerfully, “Ok!” and would stop doing it. But in LESS THAN 10 seconds, he will do it again! No joke, its really less than 10 seconds!

7. Of ‘cos not forgetting his habitual farting which drives everyone in the family crazy?! At the dinner table, in the lift, in the car, in an air-conditioned place… you name it, he has done it in all possible places (almost). To me, I strongly believes that it is another health issue, so I am NOT angry but more of feeling helpless. His farting makes everyone else so pissed and lots of scolding and yelling at him will start, and THAT is not something that I like.

8. THIS IS HIS LATEST ADD-ON to his list of Bad Habits: He likes to rub his perspiration on his neck with his chin. He would bend his neck and RUBs meat over meat with his lower jaw slanted one side, mouth slightly open and tongue stuck out. I am sorry to say this, but whenever he does that, he has the retarded look and I REALLY do not like it. In fact, it is driving Allan MAD!

It has progressed from once in a few minutes to a few times in one minute. It IS getting from bad to worse and I do not know how to solve it. We told him to do it infront of the mirror, so that he could see how he looks, and he agreed that he looked ugly and did not like it; yet he choose to say that it is beyond his control. *scream*

Now it is no longer about perspiration. Even if he is NOT perspiring, he is still doing it! Can you imagine how awful it is when he keeps doing it as he speaks? He REALLY looks like a retarded person! *heartpain*

In the past, he used to have other bad habits too and they died over time. The less rooted bad habits were gone after rewards system was implemented. Others needed more time, more patience, more reminders before he could get rid of them.

But THIS LAST BAD HABIT on the list above is rather worrying because we noticed that it is affecting this posture, as one side of the shoulder is higher now because of the frequent tilting of the head and bending of the neck to one side.

So far, we have tried endless reminders. It is not working. He would say “Ok! I’ll stop.” cheerfully and do it again in less than 10seconds. *eyes rolled*

So now we are hoping that GOGO’s Crazy Bones can do the trick, since it is the thing that he wants most now. We said we would buy him a packet when he could stop doing it for one day, but the packet must remained unopened.

If he did not do that action for the second day, he can open the packet and take ONE Gogo out.

If he continues to control that bad habit on the third day, he can take the Second Gogo out.

And if he succeeds in ‘killing’ that bad habit on the fourth day, he can take the Last Gogo out from the packet.

And in all good faith, by not doing that ugly action in four straight days, we hope that it would be gone for good.

Ever since this agreement was made, two days have passed, and he has yet to achieve step one. Yes, he has NOT been able to control that action for one full day at all. Can you see how worried I am now?

Improvement has been minimal, but at least I can see that he IS really making a genuine effort to stop that bad habit. So long as his effort does not fade, my faith in him will not waver.

*fingers crossed*

Does Your Child have these Bad Habits