All About Your Child

Remember my post about my son was being ‘forced‘ to go home because the teacher refuse to accept my explanation?

Well, my kid is back in school in one piece. No ulcers and obviously no signs of HFMD! The only unhappy thing was - the ‘idiots‘ were not there to witness the grand entrance of my son! LOL because Mommy-me woke up late today and my dear boy was 15mins late for school.

When we reached there the door was closed, which was the sign to ‘chase‘ all those ‘blockers‘ away.

If only the irritating aunties were there today, I’ll probably lay a red carpet with an orchestra right behind my boy as he march in with his head held high, chest up, tummy in and a big smile on his face.

If only the irritating aunties were there today, I’ll hold up a banner that says “My son is NOT HFMD positive! So keep your mouth shut!”

IF ONLY…..*Humph!*

(I want to thank all of you for your kind words and encouragements to my Heavy Heart yesterday, you guys are really a wonderful bunch! May your life be filled with blessings!)

I had been wondering all along, when, just when will Keatkeat’s teacher Mdm Normah snap, how long can I stretched her ‘rubber-band’ of keeping an-eye-closed about Keatkeat’s tongue. ‘cos she was doubtful over my explanation all along….but still she kept her eyes closed and let Keatkeat get into class…

Ever since the hand-foot-mouth disease started 4 months back, the school have been doing regular check-ups BEFORE the kids are allowed to step into the class.

Just last week, a student was down with the illness after the school had a clean record for 5 full weeks. Hence the check-ups were more thorough than before, first they would (prefer the parents to measure the kids’ temperature and record down on the given notebook before the come to school) check the temperature, then the palm of the hands to look out for blisters and finally shine a torchlight into the kids’ mouth to spot ulcers.

You see, my dear Keatkeat have a conditioned since he was a baby - whenever his water intake is too little, he would have ulcers on his tongue. I HAVE mentioned this to Mdm Normah almost every time she spots an ulcer or two in my 4-year-old’s mouth.

But today she was firm, very firm. She spotted 3 ulcers on Keatkeat’s tongue (*Humph* must be the Fried Spring Chicken he ate for dinner last night). She INSISTs that I bring Keatkeat home.

Let me say this first before anything else, I CAN UNDERSTAND, I DO. Even when I was a Child Care Centre teacher, I would not risk the other students’ health, just to please one eager-to-get-his-butt-in-the-class kid, who shows such signs of danger.

But as me, a HUMAN, a Mommy, I can’t stop having thoughts like:

“Damn! It was so difficult to get my little boy out of his bed and yet he is not accepted.”

“Damn! I could have slept for another hour before I head down to my 1-day bazaar later on. Pacifying one kid is easy while setting up the stall, but keeping 2 kids entertained and preventing them from quarrelling / fighting while setting up the stall is *Urrrrgghhh*”"

What makes me go really *Urggghhhhh* were the parents. Seriously, may I ask ALL Parents reading this, “Do you stay at the door of the school and look at your kids after they are in the class and STAY there till the teacher closes all windows and door?!”

I do, BUT ONLY FOR THE FIRST WEEK when my kid is in school FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE. But I won’t do that when he is already in school for almost 2 years now! But there are still sooooooooo mannnnny parents who do!

They would stand AT the door, and blocked other kids who need to get into the class. Making hand-gestures to their kids who were obviously not even looking back. Or Shouting commands like, “K, sit down!….K, don’t do that!….K, that’s wrong Stop It!…..”

If you are one of such parents, can you tell me why do you do that? I know you love your kids but he/she is not in playgroup or nursery already! They are not THAT small! Aren’t you supposed to feel free-to-do-whatever, since you’ve got 3 hours of no-kid time? Wouldn’t you want to make full use of the time and do what you couldn’t do when the kid is around?

Ok, like I was saying, What makes me go really *Urggghhhhh* were the parents. THEY WERE POINTING FINGERS AT US as we were forced to go out of the class and head back home! Then irritating words like,

“Oh dear, my child plays with this boy (referring to my dear still-didn’t-know-what’s-going-on Keatkeat) often….that means my child is in danger now of Hand Foot Mouth Disease!….”

“Oh oh….another one rejected again, this boy must have played with the child who was sick last week.”

“Oh please…parents shouldn’t bring the kid to school if he’s got HFMD…so irresponsible…”

I soooooo wanted to turn my head and give that parent the stare of the devil and scream into her head, “Mdm Normah DID NOT SAY MY CHILD GOT HFMD!!! He got ulcers BECAUSE HE DID NOT DRINK ENOUGH WATER, That’s All!!!

Keatkeat: “Mommy what happened?”

Me: “Mdm Normah didn’t allow you in, because of your mouth ulcers….please drink more water dear…”

Keatkeat: “Mommy, so are we going home now?”

Me: “Yes!”

Keatkeat: “Yeah!!! Then can I go play the Car game since I got nothing to do now?”

Me: *faint!*

Remember Keatkeat brought back a plant from his trip organised by the school? He called it ‘Water-Plant’ then because he was told to water the plant everyday, so it was more like a convenient name.

Today, he asked me if I knew what’s the Real name of the plant. I remembered asking his teacher that very day Keatkeat held that small pot in his hands, but Mdm Normah had no idea.

Any plant experts out there? I haven’t got a clue how to search through Google on such matters, whereby I have nothing but photos. Does Google have a search engine that searches based on photos? *wink*

This is the bud before the flower blooms.

The leaves are pointy but not poky.

The leaves are spread-ed out nicely in the day but gathers together at night, as if they have fallen asleep.

This is the flower, looks a little like carnation.

So far, it’s just pink. Oh silly me, which plant would produce different colored flowers in the same pot.

Just like the leaves, it blooms in the day and closes up at night.

The flower is short-lived, usually less than 36 hours.

Any idea, anyone? Keatkeat would definitely send you his hugs and kisses over to you.

Answer: MOSS ROSE.

Tammy, Keatkeat sent his hugs and kisses to you on a Jet Plane! Thank you! *smile*

I love to read comments and yesterday’s comments made me laugh (especially Clement’s) as much as I had made you guys laugh at my misery….hummm…sounds a little ironic…

Wanna thank some of you for your concerns….I managed to get the long-overdue-shit out this morning….

Anyhow, as promise, I’m going to tell you more shitty stuff today. Are you gonna puke already?

More than 15 years ago, I was working in a Child Care Centre supervised by my Church Friend. Yes, I was rather under-aged then, but she recognised that I have a way with handling kids and with the many years of giving tuition to kids, I became the English teacher for the Kindergarten 1 class, for a period of time when the form-teacher for that class was pre-occupied somewhere else.

I’ll not be revealing the Child Care Centre’s name, ‘cos it was not right to give such a responsibility to an untrained teacher like me, luckily none of the parents knew. Yes it was wrong but my Church Friend couldn’t find a replacement in such a short time.

Being so young, it was an honour. Everything felt so right. Every kid in the entire centre loves me, ‘cos I was the story-telling teacher in the morning assembly and the evening assembly; and my story telling is always full of jokes and actions…..almost 50 kids going crazy and having fun in that room, at the beginning and the end of the day…..

……I remember it was raining that day……

I was half-way through my evening assembly story, with the kids were all up on their feet making funny actions, suddenly every kid ran out of the 4meter by 2meter long carpet. Leaving the most timid and soft spoken boy I’ve ever met (till this day), standing at the center of the carpet. His name is Edwin. He was from my class - Kindergarten one.

I was shocked at first at the unison action by all the kids. Then I WAS SHOCKED TO SEE THE REASON for their action.

Gooey-slimy-greenish-extremely-stinky fluid came out of Edwin’s pants. No, not his pants, I mean his anus hidden in his pants!

I have never ever seen such gross sight in my life then (’cos many years later, my Keatkeat showed me the exact same slime when he was 2 years old, in PUBLIC - oh dear that’s another shit tale I can post, provided you guys are not vomitting already after 2 shit posts), it was horrifying.

The carpet was super thirsty or rather hungry. It was sucking in the ‘food‘ generously provided by Edwin. The flow doesn’t seem like it was gonna stop at all!

I stood there speechless, with my jaw still hanging as every kid from age 1+ to 6 were holding their noses and pointing at the Star of the Show, still motionless standing on the middle of the carpet, making sounds like “Eeeeeeee…..Yucks…..so dirty….SO Smelly”

Poor Edwin started to cry, that woke me up. How could a boy with such quiet character handle such embarrassing moment. I was afraid he would run away. That would be worst. The shit would be all over the place leaving tracks behind, like the green creature in Ghost Busters. (picture courtesy of Google Images)

The auntie who cooks and cleans for the centre, became the director of the act. She instructed me to carry Edwin to the toilet while the other teachers carry the heavy (now that its so gooey) carpet out of the centre.

The centre is located at the basement, so there wasn’t any windows for us to open to air the place. It’s completely air-conditioned.

Could you imagine the smell?! It was sooooo strong! It smelt like the poo of someone who ate rotten meat MIXED WITH the poo of someone who ate smelly cheese! EeeeW! It was fainting-ly-smelly!

But it was raining remember? So the carpet was brought up the stairs and left in the rain. They were so afraid that the rain would wash the shit down the stairs back into the centre, so all the 5 teachers decided to walk further away from the entrance. Without umbrellas, they were like wet ducks walking on heels!

Though I was under shelter, I was bathing Edwin, so I was not that dry either. The greenish-slimy-shit was dropping off his buttocks and legs and splashing onto my feet! *Urrrghhhh*

I tried to chat with Edwin, asking all the inappropriate questions for such a moment, like,

“Edwin, what’s your favourite colour.” (how I wished he didn’t say GREEN, but he did!)

“What would you like to draw when you have a blank piece of paper.”

“Who do you like best at home…..”

you know, I was desperate to ease the tension off the boy, I needed to get him distracted one way or another. If he could bathe himself, I’ll probably do a clown dance in front of him. It’s heart-breaking to see children cry, especially a super obedient and completely harmless boy like Edwin.

Then I realised he doesn’t have any shirt to wear, ‘cos the shirt he brought was already soaked with prespiration this afternoon before he went for the noon bath. But I couldn’t leave him shivering in the air-conditioned place till his mommy come right?

So I dugged out his full-of-saltiness-smelly shirt from his bag and get him dressed.

As we head back to the assembly room, the smell was unbearable. Even Edwin pinched his nose as we stepped in. Auntie was still cleaning the shit which WENT THROUGH the carpet. All the other children were sent back to their own classes to wait for their parents to come and fetch them home.

But Edwin refused. I understand why, after how his friends reacted to his uncontrollable motion, so I sat down with him at the stairway near the entrance. Luckily the tramautised boy’s Mommy came early today. I explained to her why her son smells like a pail of sweat and the centre smelled like SHIT.

Unemotionally, she told me that he had diarrhea last night too…

(Oh dear parents. If your kid is sick, especially when he or she had diarrhea the previous day, please don’t bring him or her to school or child care centre, the teachers can be spared from ALOT OF UNNECCESSARY CHAOS! Thank you very much!)

Being located at the basement was really a big problem. The smell stayed on for A WEEK!!! And the carpet? After a unanimous vote, the carpet was thrown away! The stain was almost 1 meter in diameter. Unbelievable? BELIEVE IT!

Did you throw out your dinner last night after 2 gross-y posts?

So who wants to hear my boy’s unimaginable greenish-slimy-shit mishap which happened in Public? *laugh*

(I’ll tell if there were more than 50% of you who are still so keen on such gross stuff) LOL I’ve got a feeling I’m losing a handful of you after 2 days of Shit! LOL

I’ve mentioned before that Keatkeat, oh by the way, his name is pronounced as Kit and not Ki-at like most hokkien or teochew friends would call it. I thought its about time that I clarify this. When we are living in such a multi-language society like Singapore, it’s really hard to get some words right at times.

Like I was saying, I’ve mentioned before that Keatkeat’s shitting business is always a headache for me. Not that he is not trying hard enough, but it’s beyond his control.

His shit is always sticky and soft, unlike his little brother, whose shit is always completely ‘healthy-looking-hard-sexily-shaped‘ type of shit.

Because of the ‘nature’ of Keatkeat’s shit, he needs to use ALOT of toilet papers to get his anus truly cleaned. It usually takes about 20+ wipes to get that tiny hole at the rear feces-free!

At the beginning of last year, being new at school and completely shy, he did it on his pants standing in the middle of the entire class! He dare not tell the teacher and did not know what to do, so he just did what his body told him to do, like NIKE’s slogan - JUST DO IT!

Mdm Normah, his teacher reported the matter to Allan. When he reached there, Keatkeat was shivering like crazy, completely naked, standing in the air-conditioned toilet.

Allan told me that his shit was almost diarrhea-like so it stained his shirt, his shorts, his socks and his shoes!

Few minutes later, Mdm Normah handed over the in-case-of-emergency-uniforms (uniforms that were donated to the school by ex-students) to Keatkeat, who looked like a baby in an adult shirt.

The teachers were busy cleaning the mess. This reminded me of the worst encounter I had when I was a Child Care Centre Teacher, which I’ll tell tomorrow. Every other kid in class were having a no-hold-bars self-decide activities, completely free-and-easy. Allan said the whole place was in chaos and our dear firstborn was the creator of this drama.

Allan brought Keatkeat home for a complete wash, before he bring the boys over to my in-law’s house. That’s the usual routine for us when we had the stall in the past and before my sis-in-law is pregnant for the 3rd time.

I will go to my stall after bringing Keatkeat to school, while Allan will wait at home with Binbin till Keatkeat is off from school. Then after bringing the kids to my in-law’s house (a 30 mins car van ride), Allan will join me.

At 11am today, my handphone rang…

“Hi, this is Mdm Normah, is this Cheng Keat’s Mommy?”

“Hi Mdm Normah, yes…did something happen to Cheng Keat?”

“He told me he wants to pass motion but when I told him to go ahead and do it in the toilet, he insists on going home.”

I understand that some children are not comfortable doing the big business outside the comfort of their own toilet bowl at home, but Keatkeat has done it outside countless times already. I was a little surprised at his response. So I asked….

“Would you like me to talk to Cheng Keat over the phone right now?”

“I would prefer you to come down….errrrmmm is it convenient?”

HOW COULD I TELL YOU THE TRUTH? IT IS NOT CONVENIENT AT ALL BECAUSE I AM SHITTING AT THIS VERY MOMENT! (yes I bring my handphone into the toilet with me, so that I could play Sudoku)

But I couldn’t right? It would be so embarrassing right?

“No problem, but could you give me 10mins?”

But I need more than 10mins to get MY BIG BUSINESS done…though it’s only 3 mins walk from my house to the school, I definitely couldn’t reach there in 10mins, but what could I say….*Urrrggghhh* What an awful timing!

“Sure! So long as Cheng Keat could wait.” replied the teacher

I stepped on the ‘emergency brake‘ immediately! Yes I stopped my shit from coming out from my rear hole. Totally a wrong thing to do, totally an unhealthy thing to do, totally unnatural thing to do, but I did it, fearing the unimaginable at the same time.

When I reached there, the happy Keatkeat ran over and hug me. I placed my hands on his shoulders and choo-chooed him to the toilet.

Did he shit? NO!!!!!! He merely farted a couple of times loudly and pee-ed! That was it! Not a piece of shit came out!

I was HOT! Very Hot! Oh the sacrifice I made….and the reward I got was just a couple of unpleasant farts! Hey I was hoping for a mountain of stingy pile of SHIT *Urrrggghhhh*.…

“Why didn’t you go to the toilet when Mdm Normah told you to? Why did you insist on going home?”

“Because I am very shy.”

“You are afraid that your friends will laugh at you for passing motion?”

“Yes.” and he giggled away…..

*sigh* After that, I couldn’t shit anymore….

This is a ‘normal pair of shoes’.

This is what my Keatkeat did to them.

Doing it for his little brother, Binbin. The ’spirit’ of Brotherhood. *smile*

It’s been more than a month. The 2 of them have refused to do it the ‘right’ way back. Whenever I bring Keatkeat to school, those uncles and aunties would say things like:

“Aiyo, he doesn’t know how to wear the shoe properly ah?.”

“Aiyo, as a mother, you should correct him.”

“This is the wrong way of wearing the shoes.”

My reaction? - SMILE.

Yup! That’s all I do. Well, he is not obstructing, offending or hurting anyone. Most importantly, his shoes don’t fall off when he runs, so does it really matter?

I guess it matters alot to these uncles and aunties, ‘cos their grandchild is following the style too! *Laugh*

Many of you were concerned that I may be too harsh on Keatkeat after seeing the kind of worksheets (yesterday’s post) I give him. I can’t help but laugh a little.

That’s the last thing I’ll do, dear friends. All the mommies around me have been saying that I’m too slack, especially my 2nd sis-in-law, who is always checking if my kids are ‘up to the standard’. 

I’m a very go-by-the-flow kind of Mommy, it’s very unlikely that I’ll introduce something which the kid is not interested in; unless its a must, like knowing the alphabet. Then I will build the interest through songs and games. Seriously, to get a kid to be interested in anything is as easy as breathing. *wink*

A very good example of how ’slack’ or how ‘go-by-the-flow’ kind of Mommy I am is this great news that I intend to announce to the world.

I DO NOT HAVE DIAPERS KIDDOS IN MY HOUSE ANYMORE!!! Yeah!!!

Where’s the champagne?

I know many of you started potty training your kid as early as 18 months, but I’m really not into the by-when-your-kid-should-be-able-to do this and that kind of Mommy.

Guidelines are great! I love to read them but to follow strictly is ridiculous, ‘cos every kid is different.

It was just 2 weeks ago, that my 3 year old, Binbin, went diaper free at night. We decided to do that after he presented dry diapers every morning for more than 10 days. We knew he was ready.

Like I know what most of you would encounter during the night potty training period:

-wake up in the middle of the night to get the kid to pee

-wake up hoping for a dry mattress but prepared for the worst

-several mornings of washing the wet mattress covers, bolster cases, pajamas, etc

-several mornings of sunning the mattress or dry it with the hair dryer

stories like these are very common.

These mommies see such ’sufferings’ as part of the potty training process. I see it as a training that could have been delayed. Why do it when the child is not ready?

Of cos, I pay a couple of hundred dollars more on diapers as compared to them, but it definitely save me a lot of ’sigh’ and unnecessary washings in the mornings.

Ok that’s about my kind of parenting - intro whatever only when the child is ready.

And talking about this, my Keatkeat has proven his mega memory power as early as 2+ years old. So spellings are ‘chicken-feet’ to him - not exaggerating! Guess what was the very first word he spelled? His favourite word in the entire universe - C-A-R!

He could identify 10 different car logos, recognise the direction to any place which he had just been there ONCE, remember what he did at that place and all the nitty-gritty details that one wouldn’t care much about.

His could almost tell the time on the clock as well as the digital time now. It’s wonderful and frustration-free to teach a kid when the kid is interested in the topic, and seriously, there isn’t a topic a kid at this age would not feel interested in, it all depends on how the subject is taught. *wink*

Today is the Last Day of the one month long School Holidays, Yippeee!!!! Finally, my life can be back to the more predictable routine, instead of squeezing my brain for new stuff to do with them day in, day out.

You see, during school holidays, they don’t nap because they wake up really late. Then the question of “Mommy, can you play with me”will come right after they had their morning milk and this will continue to wee hours like 1am! Their energy level is unbelievable!

This mid-year school break WAS really fruitful, especially for my preschool Keatkeat. Finally he is able to spell from 1-20, know the days of the week through the song I created, improve on his motor skills, which is still a little behind his 15 months younger bro in some ways, recognise almost 10 car brand logos, paint at home for the very first time, help to cook too, etc….

So on this last day, I tested him with this…. which my hubby thinks was too CONFUSING for a 4 year old. What do you think? Too confusing? Too tough on him?

But he scored really well, without any prompting or assistance, remember, its a Test. I wasn’t too harsh on him too, I gave him a chance to look through his answers twice before handing the worksheets back to me.

I’m glad I did gave him time to check over, ‘cos that’s when he noticed some mistakes he made, as you can see the signs of stuff being erased and rewritten over.

 Though he may not have scored full-marks for this last one, I’m happy with the results. He used to be much worse off.

My hubby still thinks that it was too tough for him…..hmmmm

It’s funny how the old feeling of giving tuition to other kids, in my younger years, comes right back as I put every red tick on each correct answer and (as usual) give lots of stars…..Keatkeat wanted 39 stars and I granted his wish. *smile*