All About Your Child

For those of you who didn’t read my comments on yesterday post, it was a Praying Mantis, 3/4 the size of my hand about 12cm long and today we found this super fly (that’s Binbin’s hand at the background)…. on the kitchen floor.

The 2 boys were chasing the super fly till (I think) it got exhausted and rested on the floor. That’s how I could manage to get a shot of it. Poor Fly…tortured by 2 crazy kids. Ok, enough of all these creepy crawlers or flyers.

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This morning, something unusual happened between the boys. Instead of fighting not to brush his teeth first, they were discussing who should brush first….hummm…

Keatkeat (K): “I brush first then you can see how to brush your teeth mah…”

Binbin (B): “I know already. I big boy already, you know? I know how to brush my ownself.”

K: “Ai ya, I show you, gor-gor (big brother) got go school, the nurse in school tell me how to brush properly already.”

Surprisingly the always-eager-to-win spirit in Binbin quieten down and let his brother be the teacher. All mommies who have more than 1 kid knows how often siblings fight, they could fight over the least imaginable thing, always competitive, so this is a rare sight. I ran to grab my camera, while Keatkeat was brushing his teeth.

When I was back, all ready with my small digital camera, I was ready to capture one of the most harmonious moment (I think) between the 2 boys. I wished to video it down but the video effect of my digital camera is horrible, so I could only take shots. What a shame!

 K: “First, you open the toothpaste like this…”

 K: “Come…give me your toothbrush…”

 K: “Take. Be careful. The toothpaste may drop….”

 K: “Now, brush your teeth like what gor-gor did….”

 That’s Keatkeat’s gesture to my question, “So did Binbin do a good job?”

I’ve mentioned over here and here before that Binbin has a head that’s as hard as steel and his pain tolerance level is extremely high.

He can bang his head onto the sides of the opened car door, ended up with a dent on his forehead and all he did was shed a few tears.

Now I got to know my boy a little deeper…he doesn’t only have a head so hard, he had such strong teeth too!

When I saw the tile, I was expecting blood with 1 or 2 broken teeth, but there wasn’t. Binbin just sat there looking stunned, that’s all….Should I credit this to 6 months of breastfeeding for such strong teeth and bones? Hmmm….what about his threshold of pain? Is that inherited from someone….way back to my ancestors…cos’ neither Allan nor I are as ‘tolerant’ as my 3 year old? Hmmm….*Scratch head*

The rates of the taxi fares have risen tremendously especially since 17 December last year. Rates have been adjusted mainly because of the complaints from the taxi drivers, ever since more companies were allowed to share the pie. As usual there are still some black sheep among the flock. Last Saturday, my in-laws took a cab from Clementi to Hougang. The taxi driver went by a longer route, to earn more, obviously. Even when my MIL told him that he should have made a turn so that the journey is shorter, he refused and continued to drive the longer way. Both my in-laws were very angry and kept reprimanding him for (purposely) missing a few turns, then he vent his anger by driving recklessly.

The 2 old folks were with my niece, 7, and nephew, 1. When they finally reached Hougang, the meter read $22.40!!! My MIL continued to lecture him even after the taxi has arrived at the destination, for cheating on them and driving dangerously when there were 2 young kids in his cab. Humph! He deserved the lecture. 3 years ago, I used to sling Binbin over my shoulder and held the tiny hand of my 2 year old Keatkeat to my in-law house, back then it only cost $9-$10!

The rates are really getting way too high. Ever since the increase, I have completely stopped taking cabs, COMPLETELY STOPPED! Even though it takes 1 hour now for the three of us to take a bus, then a MRT, then a bus before we reach my in-laws’ house, I would rather spend this time then to pay that much! Today, my husband’s friend took a cab from Telok Blangah to Toa Payoh during peak hours, $18!!! Ridiculous! That’s the cost of a decent meal for 5 people and it’s gone in less than 20mins!

If you are a reader from another country, you made be interested to know more about this country from my previous 2 posts ‘Tough Questions’ and ‘Singapore’.

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A friend of mine, Aric, who used to sell hair accessories, has decided to stop his retail business totally and give me ALL his stocks for FREE! He knows that I have stopped my handmade accessories retail business too, but is still consigning my leftovers to others, so he thought it would be better to give his remaining stocks to me than throw them into the dustbin.

The rich man son need not worry about survivor because he is the operating manager of his father’s metal manufacturing company and he is only 25 years old. Thank you Aric!

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If you read My Profile, you know I love to sing. Every now and then, my kids and I will have a theme song, not that we do it on purpose, but a certain song would just keep singing in our head so much, we can’t help but sing or hum that particular tune for a couple of days or even weeks.

These days, this Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate commercial has been our song. It’s funny, especially the last verse.

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Many of you know that Binbin is a vegetable lover. Recently he added a new vegetable to his long list - ONION!!!

It was so amazing and funny to watch him eat slice after slice of onion that were fried together with the main dish for presentation purposes, not so much for taste. So the slices of onions were big and hardly-cooked.

He would squint his eyes as he chew it in his mouth with a big frown on his face after he swallowed it, and you think that he regretted his decision; but no, he asked for another piece! This continues till there aren’t any onions left on that plate. *jaw-dropped*

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Keatkeat’s memory power is getting more and more incredible. We could drive him to a place only ONCE and he could direct us to that place! At a cross road junction, he could tell us where it would lead us, if we turned left, turned right or went straight.

I play all sorts of memory games with him. One of my favourite game was to show him 8 cards first, then put them face down, asked him to find the 4 matching pairs and he could do it in one go. Seriously, is that amazing? I’m not sure, because I have taught many kids of this age before and I can’t remember anyone as good as this, especially the way he recognizes the direction to different places. Anyone have kids like these when they were 4 years old?

If yes, tell me, and then I will know it’s just a norm for kids of this age.

If not, could you suggest what kind of lesson should I send him to, to let this talent of him soar? If a child is musically inclined, you send him to music schools to learn singing and play musical instruments. So what about mega-memory power packed kids? Any idea?

Yes! Yes! Yes! Can you see I’m jumping up and down? Finally Syesha Mercado is going Home! I’m evil, I know.

When Ryan Seacrest said that David Cook was going to perform the last song, last night, ‘I don’t want to miss a thing’, my heart dropped. The very first time I saw this man on the TV screen, I’ve wished that he would sing this song, because it felt so him. And indeed he did a FANTASTIC JOB!

At last, my kids can tell me exactly what they liked about David Cook…

Keatkeat: “I like David Cook because he got moustache and beard.”

Binbin: “He can cook!”

*laugh……*

Its been almost a year of lying down every night on the completely worn out mattress. My boys’ mattress still looks good when its untouched but when you step on it you know the foam in it is in a terrible state.

How could it not be when it has been seasoned so many times with vomits and urine!? Yes we are pathetic, we let them sleep on those horrible mattresses, where the germs and bed bugs rest alongside with them.

We didn’t buy earlier because Binbin still have accidents occasionally at night, his urine overflowed even when he had his XL diapers on. Guess his flow was way too fast and too much for the diapers to meet his standard.

After one week of completely dry diapers in the morning, we knew it was time to get rid of their *urgh* mattresses. With the additional perk from the government last week, the Growth Dividend of $200 given out to all Singaporeans in celebration of Singapore’s exceptional economy growth last year, makes it even easier for us to afford better ones for them.

Everyone was happy, la…la..la.. we went home and in less than20 hours, Binbin realised that he is not used to sleeping on a mattress that smelled so good, he preferred the stinky old smell…..

My 3 year old was lying on his purple flowery mattress, while I applied cream to stop the itch on his bottom. I wonder if mosquitoes do selective thinking on the area of which the victim should be stung before they finally decide to poke into the skin. Well, I think they do, ‘cos Binbin always get them on his bums.

So there I was happily chatting with the little guy while rubbing my index finger around his bouncy little ass. Then nature’s most wonderful fountain appeared right before my eyes. It was yellowish, it shoots far, landed on his pillow, it was just centimetres away from his left ear, the flow was strong, was definite and showed no signs of stopping!

Look at the picture and just imagine the boy lying down (not standing) and the flow went the opposite way and you have got the exact scene I was staring at!

I was shouting “stop, Stop, STOoooooP!!!!”…it was an unreasonable demand, it was beyond his control to stop…But I want him to stop!

It came too sudden, I wasn’t fast enough to react…I was sitting there as if a kungfu master has just tapped on my you-cannot-move pulse, fully conscious but was numb all over.

Allan and I looked at each other, we wanted to scold, we couldn’t, we laughed. We laughed at the short life span of the new smell of the mattress, we laughed at the direction the urine went. Imagine, I could have had an urine-facial treatment done directly from my beloved son’s little pipe.

The pillow was soaked through and so was the bed and his body. So it was ‘Get-to-work’ at 9am in the morning with lots of washing and sunning and blowing with the hair dryer….

See my little bottle of Febreze? That’s the hero of the day! Spray on the stinky-stinko area before you sun or blow dry. As the water evaporates, the chemical brings the smell along with it. Can’t imagine what would my life be without it. *muack*

Binbin’s response to the mess he created? “Mummy, look, I got 2 eggs down here….” squeezing his God given reproductive system when we stripped him naked and ran off in his birthday suit, acting crazy………Where’s the remorse? *eyes rolled*

A memory that will scar the childhood…that was what happened to me when my dad threw away all my dolls right before my eyes. I stopped him, I wrestled his strong arm, I snatched my dolls from his hands, but nothing works.

All I could managed was sat there crying out loud, “Papa, don’t throw…don’t throw…” as I peered through my watery eyes, brushing off the trickles from my face with the back of my hands. My voice grew weaker, slowly diminishing as my vision gets blurred from the tears as my playmates goes in pairs down the rubbish chute.

The hurt was done, the ugly emotion of hatred started to grow stronger….its one of the worst memories I had about my relationship with my dad.

I have forgotten why he did that. Maybe he found out that those were my rewards whenever my Mom wins on the gambling table; maybe he was to take revenge on his girl who had never showed any love for him, maybe he was just having a bad mood and needed to vent his anger on the helpless human like toy.

Its been more than 20 years now, but the moment, the emotions that stirred in my soul, the thoughts that raced through my mind are still as clear as distilled water.

Yesterday, Binbin threw away Keatkeat’s Mack head. As you can see, the head is detachable.

No one saw him threw it away, according to both sides of the story, what I could figure out was this….

‘Keatkeat found it difficult to attached the head back to the body and so he left it aside. Binbin probably insisted his brother to put the head in place but was refused. In a fit of anger, he threw it into the dustbin.’

I have emptied the dustbin in the morning, didn’t take much notice of the rubbish in the plastic bag. By the time we knew about this, it was past 2pm already.

Allan wanted to soothe his crying firstborn, who curled up on his bed, like a worm which was brutally stepped on, with his head buried under his bolster and pillow; went down to the rubbish dump on the ground floor in attempt to salvaged the severed head.

But the rubbish dump was piled up to his waist. The loving dad dropped his mission. There was nothing we could do. I carried him up and sat him on my lap, hugged him so tight as he hugged his knee just as tight, rocked him a little like what I used to do when he was a baby.

I felt his pain…I really do…it hurts…it hurts doubly hard when the pain is caused by someone he loved. You can see it on Binbin’s face, his remorse. The 3-year-old caressed his brother’s head but his small hand was brushed awat. The little boy said sorry, but it couldn’t reverse the damaged done.

The only way to let go of the old love is to get a replacement.

Allan brought him out to get the Car Transporter. That was the only way which stopped his tears…..

Keatkeat was determined to keep this to himself. He has always been a boy who’s willing to share. But not this time.

Binbin had his eye on the green car (see the one on the top [center]) All he wanted was that one small green car, nothing else, but Keatkeat was not giving in no matter what. Till today, his anger towards his only brother is still strong.

Allan and I have done our best to explain to both of them, the bottom-line - do not let a toy come between the love for each other. Binbin has no problem dealing with that. If you don’t have a 3-year-old, let me tell you, they filter away bad emotions like the flush of the toilet bowl.

Keatkeat understands, but its difficult for him to accept. For a 4-year-old boy, whereby toys are his only treasures, it will take time….only time can heal the broken hearted….

Did I hear you ask, “What is this???”

It’s BINBIN’S EARWAX!!! It came out from his left ear!

This is the first time I am cleaning his ears with the ear-pick ever since he appeared on this planet. Now that he could stay so still (see yesterday’s post)….its really easy peasy to get the job done.

So this must be the accumulation over the 3 years. No wonder he is always so loud. He could hardly hear himself!!!

You think this is big? The one that came out from his right ear was even bigger and rounder, but Binbin felt too gross to look at it and swept it off my hand, and if you have a flooring like mine…..

…..you know its almost mission impossible to find that ear wax!

Currently, there is an outbreak of HFMD in Singapore, with 702 cases reported on the last week of March, bringing the total number this year to 4,423 cases. Last year, Singapore registered a record of 20,005 cases.

SINGAPORE is developing the world’s first diagnostic kit for Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) that will help detect the virus in febrile children within 10 to 20 minutes.

This means that children with the highly contagious HFMD can be picked out and quarantined sooner, thus minimising the chances of their passing on the virus to their peers.

Beginning of this week, the children, in Keatkeat’s school, needed to queue up for temperature check before they could step into the class. This really eats into the time for learning.

Yesterday, a temperature record sheet was given. All parents were advised to record down their child’s temperature before he/she goes to school every morning. As expected, some parents just don’t follow instructions or they may have forgotten, so the queue still exist.

Out of 22 children in the class, only 3 remembered to take the temperature at home before coming to school, and Keatkeat is one of them. Yeah! So he gets to play while the rest are waiting for their temperature to be taken.

Currently, the diagnosis of HFMD — a common childhood disease — is symptomatic, which means that children are being screened for the virus only when they show up with a rash with blisters on their palms and soles, and mouth ulcers.

The HFMD test kit, however, will be able to detect the virus in a child who has fever, since the NUS medical school’s paediatric department has identified a marker in the viral protein that can be used in the kit.

EV71 has been associated with serious complications. In 2000 and 2001, EV71 killed more than 70 children in Asia, including seven in Singapore.

There are 6 students in Keatkeat’s class being quarantined at home already. Keeping my fingers crossed, may Keatkeat sail through this smoothly…..The scary part about this disease is its contagious before the blisters appear. So you never know who has it, till its too late.

The HFMD test kit will only be available in 3-4 years time….sigh…so for now, all we could do is make sure Keatkeat’s hands and feet are always washed thoroughly every-time he comes home from school, before he touch any toys…or little Binbin will be in danger too….