All About Your Child

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*

I love requests. Sometimes, as much as I wish to write, I am either lost for words or lost for topic to write on, not that I have nothing to write, rather my daily life is so packed with events and thoughts, I could literally sit in-front of my square box and type 24hours with cobwebs all over me, except on my fingers, which were the only moving part of my body…ok enough of my blabbling… so requests helps me to decide what to write type on.

Got a request from Erin, someone whom I fell in love with at her first post, she is a fantastic writer, so go on and pop by her site to check out this great mommy of two. Ok, Erin would like to know what it is like to be from Singapore?

Hey Singaporeans, back me up if you agree whatever that I’m saying ok. If you don’t like what I say, you can disagree too, but don’t say I’m wrong, ‘cos its MY VIEW; in opinions, there’s never right or wrong, isn’t it?

Ok, here goes….Singapore to me is definitely a fine country. You get fine for almost anything and everything. From selling of chewing gums to spitting on the floor to stopping the Mass Rapid Transit Train for the wrong reason, you get big fines that ranges from S$500 to S$5000.

Other laws in Singapore which made people from other parts of the globe goes “huh” includes:

• The sale of chewing gum is prohibited.

• Pornography is illegal.

• As it is considered pornographic, you may not walk around your home nude.

• Failure to flush a public toilet after use may result in very hefty fines.

• It is considered an offense to enter the country with cigarettes.

• Smoking is illegal inside all air-conditioned public places.

• There is a division for smokers and non-smokers at non air-conditioned eating places.

• Murderers receive the death penalty.

• Drug traffickers are sentence to death.

• If you are convicted of littering three times, you will have to clean the streets on Sundays with a bib on saying, “I am a litterer.”

Even though such rules may seem absurd to many non-Singaporeans, but they are the bits and pieces that complete this beautiful country. Singapore IS the cleanest city and country in the world.

Singapore-The Cleanest City-Country In The World

Another great thing I like living here is the level of safety. Its an offense to own a gun unless you are from the Police Force. I’ve heard many stories over the news in other countries, about people being killed under the bullet. Its scary.

All thanks to the very tight security level at the airport and the harbour and almost every other corner in this small dot on the globe, you can walk on the streets late at night without much to worry about.

I grew up in this multi-racial country, dominated by 3 main groups, going from biggest group, the Chinese, the Malays and the Indians. So often I take this fact for granted. Only news on racial dis-harmony in other countries could remind me of how blessed I am to be here in Singapore.

And despite our skin colour differences, our language differences and our differences in religion, we could still hold hands and sing the National Anthem year after year on National Day. Since the Government made English the Must-Learn language in all schools over here, communication between all of us is never a problem.

You can have the church, the Hindu temple, the Buddhist temple and the Muslim Mosque, side by side without riots happening. *laugh* talking about riots. There could never be a chance for riots to happen in Singapore because you need to APPLY to have riot and obviously your application will never be approved *laugh*. If no application form was submitted, you’ve got to prepare yourself for a vacation behind bars.

But these days, Singapore is opening its doors even wider to outside talents. When you have a space so limited with not much natural resources, literally none; people is the country’s only resource she can bang on.

So more and more people from other nationality like Americans, Australians, Japanese, Europeans, Chinese from China (they are completely different from us) and more Indians from India migrating over here to add on to the variety of this harmonous country.

To push the point further, the Government over here give out $$$ to encourage the citizens to produce more babies as its moving into the aging population. The Scheme benefits the 1st to the 4th child. Parents will get a cash gift of $3,000 each for their 1st and 2nd child and $6,000 each for their 3rd and 4th child.

Their 2nd to 4th children will also enjoy government contributions in the form of a dollar-for-dollar matching for the amount of savings the parent contribute to their child’s Children Development Account (CDA).

The parents can save in the CDA any time until 31 December in the year the child turns 6 years of age. The savings will be matched up to the cap of $6,000 for the 2nd child and $12,000 each for the 3rd and 4th child. Good? Although its never enough, but I’ve not heard of such generousity in any other country. Correct me if I’m wrong.

We live in what some say, pigeon holes. High rise flats known as HDB. Hanging clothes out on bamboo sticks and sticking them in the holes punched into the wall. Higher HDB are already on its way, reaching for the sky, with so many more people coming over to this tiny land, the only way to accommodate is to go up and not expand on sideways.

The ‘aiya’ part about Singapore (for me) is the absence of the four seasons. The only thing that falls from the sky is the rain and dead leaves. The weather in Singapore is often predictably unpredictable. You get the sunshine (for sure), the rain and the wind. That’s all. But its also highly possible that you get all 3 at the same time! It can be so sunny you could hardly open your eyes and yet raining at the same time…Hummmm….

One thing that makes me want to keep staying here is the FOOD! Whatever you want, you can find it here. Food from all over the world are in restaurants all over the island.

But for me, it’s the food at the coffeeshops, the hawker centres……mmmm…yum! Some of my favourites(oh no its a super long list, I’ll just list top 10),

• Pig organ soup,

• Rojak (you throw whatever fruits and vege and beancurd, mix it up with black sweet sauce and grinded peanuts),

• BBQ Stingray with chilli paste dipped in sour sauce,

• Chicken-Roast Pork-Roast Duck Rice,

• Pork Ribs Soup,

• Laksa (super spicy rice noodles),

• Chilli Crabs (Allan cook this every now and then, wrote a post on it sometime back, go here to see what it looks like),

• Popiah (vege wrapped in a super thin sheet made from flour),

• Roti Prata (flour patty)

• Beef Hor fun (flat, fat noodle fried till brownish with gravy)

But its getting tough over here too. Because Singapore is so well-established, with so many awards on hand, its a challenge to stay strong to continue to be at the top. So the standard of living is getting higher by the day. Prices of things are going up. Everything that has a price tag on it is always changing, hitting the ‘expensive’ mark.

So many may not be able to survive if they don’t upgrade themselves….its going to be tough…..

Yup! That’s how I feel to be a Singaporean living in Singapore all my 30 years. Seriously, I love it here! So, did you like my description of Singapore?