All About Your Child

Have you ever send your kid to the quiet corner OR reduce his/her allowances OR ban him/her from watching his/her favourite cartoons OR “You are grounded for a week!” OR even spank him/her till he/she shouts “Ok.ok.. I’ll never do it again.” ….But when the pain on the buttocks are gone, so did the memory and that promise…. Familiar?

It was the last Friday in December 2008, for the very first time, my boys did something that almost made me EAT THEM ALIVE!

“Me first!” “No! Me first” A common verbal fight went on that night in the kitchen. I ignored. Few seconds later two sprinters sped to the living room to fight for a ‘good’ seat infront of the PC for their favourite internet game on Playhouse Disney. (By the way, that’s in the past, now, they are only playing games using their Facebook account)

I heard the sound of water running. I sprung up and Damn! They were so eager to have that ‘main’ seat, both had refused to turn off the tap, fearing that the 1 second used in slapping down the tap handle, to stop the water flow, would be too costly to their vie for that VIP seat.

The tap handle was lifted to the maximum. The strength of the water was so great, sprinkles were ‘bouncing’ off from the basin to give my floor an uncalled for wash.

I rescued my floor in split seconds (my house isn’t that big anyway), turned my head and spit fire at my boys like an escaped dragon! I was so pissed!

What would you do after the fiery scoldings?

Water is Precious. Water is MONEY!!! I MUST make them understand how important water is. I HAVE TO make them know wasting water is throwing money senselessly. I AM DETERMINED to make them REMEMBER this mistake!

What would you do?

I TOOK AWAY THEIR FAVOURITE THING.

The look on my face had shocked my boys, they stood nervously infront of their play corner instead of fighting for that chair. “Binbin, what is Gorgor’s favourite HotWheels Car?! …. Keatkeat, and what is Binbin’s favourite?”

That’s the great thing about having 2! At times like these, they are eager to ‘help’ the disciplinary master. ‘Cos if you only had one, he will never want you to take away ‘THE favourite’, he’ll probably pass you the 2nd favourite!

I kept them high in the storeroom, but low enough for them to see with tippy toes, yet not low enough for them to touch. They are ‘trained’ well enough not to ‘rescue’ their ‘pets’ when the law-enforcer is not looking.

Since then, they will open the door everyday to peek at their favourites and then come over to me, “Mommy, did you scold me today?”

Yes, that’s their only lifeline – Be So Good for 24 hours, so much so that I DID NOT Scold or even raise my voice at you and you will get your favourite toy car back!

Days went passed. Weeks too. After 3+ months, Binbin DID IT! Yesterday was indeed a GOOD FRIDAY for him. My 4 year old was such a heavenly boy that I had to ask Allan to help me do the recall-QC and yes, the boy deserved to be rewarded.

Sigh…as for the challenging Keatkeat, instead of reaching for this goal, over the past 3+ months, 2nd and 3rd favourites had joined the 1st victim ‘behind-bars’.

So now, he had to Not be scolded for 24hours thrice before he’ll be able to get his top favourite blue car.

I’m saying that taking away the kid’s favourite things is the most effective punishment for my boys, ‘cos even the poor-memory-Binbin CAN remember why his red car was kept from him.

When I passed it to him, other than giving me a *Phew*-Finally-You-Are-Back-In-My-Palm expression, he assured me (without being asked), “Mommy, I will not waste water anymore, because water is important.”

My Warrior’s ‘Old Buddy’ – Bronchitis came back on Tuesday. I was trying soooo hard to prevent ‘his’ visit but failed.

When there are lots of rain and sun, when temperature fluctuates between burning hot or way cool within a day, Keatkeat’s sinus will get really serious. Yes yes the 7 months of my struggle with his sinus has ended, but the patient himself is still battling with it every morning.

Usually, after a morning bath, disappear behind school doors, 4 hours later, upon fetching my 5 year old, his Sinus – the ‘Part-Time Lover’ will be gone for the rest of the day. Then the mucusy cycle will repeat itself the next morning again.

Last Friday, when he was still having sniff-sniff snort-snort as he stepped out of class, I knew something was not right. The “Ahhh-Cheee” didn’t stop even though we gave him his favourite syrup over the weekend.

Monday came, still the same. Tuesday came and was worse. His ‘Part-Time Lover’ brought along ‘Old Buddy’ to create a real party!

So here we go again, cough cough cough till he vomits. Occasionally, his coughs and sneezes happen almost at the same time. Whoever was infront of him will know he/she is extremely ‘lucky’ that day to have salivary facial treatment from the preschooler. *eyes rolled*

7 months of sinus-coping training paid off, cos’ he gets to ‘practise‘ every single day. But when it comes to Bronchitis, Woah! Its a whole new sort of training.

Cover your mouth when you cough! Reach for the dustbin quickly, which we have a few at the most accessible places, BEFORE you vomit! Turn your head away from your food (and ours! Oh please!) when you cough! Though its pretty similar to the ‘sinus-training’, HE JUST CAN’T GET IT!!!

He vomited his 2 mouthful of porridge on Tuesday evening, his 100 ml of milk later at night and couldn’t get anything down his throat thereafter. Did I worry that he would be hungry? Nah… but I do double check with him every now and then.

Cos’ the first day of the party is often the MOST phlegmy. Too thick, too irritating, too disturbing. Forcing anything down would only be asking for trouble. Without food, he still holds on to the small dustbin or runs to the basin to vomit his phlegm out.

I did not give him anti-vomit medicine, cos he feels better after vomiting those thick colourless slimy stuff each time. And that’s what I learn after many trials, that the more he vomits the faster he gets well, even though its really painful to watch… I’ve stopped watching by the way, just listening to it…

So no school for him yesterday and today, guess he will be too weak anyway. Thank God for Good Friday and Thank God that its tomorrow! So he doesn’t need to bring back more school work!

When weather become so extreme, I get bloodstains on my hands from slapping the ‘CassanovaS‘ and I get to clean up vomits with these pair of bloodstained hands too. For 3 days now, though daytime are almost unbearable without the fan (Wind worsens his cough) AND nights are awfully disturbing as temperature decreases as the intensity of the cough increases, I consider myself lucky this time for not having to wake up at 3am mopping his vomits like the previous battle.

It pains my heart when I see him hunching even more from coughing, but when you have encountered such scenes for 3 years now, you are no longer in the worried zone, but the, “Damn! I’m the Mommy, give me that! Don’t do it to my son!”

Yesterday he was able to swallow 5 spoonful of *beh-tai-muk* with soup for lunch and dinner.  Today is better, half a bowl of porridge and it stayed in the tummy long enough to be FULLY DIGESTED before the next round of vomits began. Hmmm… maybe because I’m so good at cooking food-for-the-sick. *laugh*

This time, Keatkeat is also more willing to drink warm water and that helps alot! The phlegm are more diluted, hence easier to cough it out, sparing the energy needed to ‘force’ them out through vomiting.

Anyhow, he is still in the sniff-sniff snort-snort cough-cough state. But whenever there are brief seconds he is not, he is his usual cheeky self, twitching his eyebrows and winking at me (like now, as I type)

Still, Shoo Shoo…. bring back the more predictable weather please???

*short. white. fatter than noodle stuff. made from flour.*