All About Your Child

This 9cm long insect had my kids’ full attention for more than 45 mins today. The praying mantis was first spotted by Keatkeat when he was about to water his plant this morning. It was standing right beside my money plant.

“Mommy look! What is that? This leaf got legs and can move.” exclaimed my elder one.

The kids were so amused by its head turning over to look at them. They inspected it from the feelers to the tip of the legs. Making every little “Eeee”, “Aiyo”, “Huh”, “Ehh”, whenever the green insect moved – reaction from city-kids. The only insects they see often are non other than cockroaches and ants, so any other crawlers apart from these 2 will be an eye-opener for them.

So I had a free children-sitter for 45mins. I was so happily doing my own stuff and leaving my kids alone to interact with the praying mantis, knowing that neither of them would harm each other.

The worst thing I could imagine was the insect would leap onto Binbin, since he is a vege-craze, so maybe his breath smells more leafy than his elder brother; and Binbin would probably just stay still like a statue and start to shout, “MOMMY!!!”

According to here, Praying mantises eat insects and other invertebrates such as other mantises, beetles, butterflies, spiders, crickets, grasshoppers, and even spiders. The praying mantises also eat vertebrates such as small tree frogs, lizards, mice and hummingbirds. Praying mantis can resemble flowers and can catch small, unknowing hummingbirds. Praying mantis also eat other nesting birds.

So this uninvited guest will always be welcomed here, so that my plants would be free from insects and at the same time be my kids’ entertainer. *wink*

They fight with one another.

They scratch. (Always had to check their nails.)

They wrestle.

They push.

They pull.

They slap.

They pinch.

They squeeze.

They show monkey faces.

They argue with one another.

“I don’t like you.”

“Me first”….”No! me first”

“This is mine!”

“I don’t want you.”

“Go away.”

“I don’t want to play with you.”

They threatened each other.

“You bully me….I go tell mommy.”

“Don’t give you sweet sweet.”

“Don’t give you drink jelly.”

“Don’t give you stickers.”

“Don’t let you use my crayon.”

They love each other.

They hug.

They kiss.

They pat on the head.

They share their food.

They share their toys.

They play together.

They laugh together.

They play tricks on the parents together.

They protect each other when another kid bullies one of them.

They caress the wound of the injured one.

They help each other to get what the other desires.

They coax each other.

They encourage each other.

We used to break their fight every other minute. But as they grow, their little minds mature, the frequency of fights decreases and the length of the arguments shortened.

We often need to remind them that each other is all they have when we (parents) are gone. Love each other. Spend time playing together is more fun than causing the other to bleed and be in pain. Time is short, spend the time you have with each other smiling and laughing rather than glaring. I guess when such words are repeatedly said over so many times a day, a week, a month, a year, it does take effect on their behaviour.

They are never too young to learn, its the parents who thinks they are too young.

They fight furiously for a few seconds, minutes later, they are laughing together. Isn’t that what siblings are all about?