Wise words to live by

Something to think about ...

Whether we wear a $300 watch or a $30,000 watch, they both tell the same time.
Whether we carry a $300 handbag or a $10,000 handbag, the amount of money inside is the same.
Whether we drink a bottle of $30 wine or $3000 wine, the vomiting is the same.
Whether the house we live in is 30m2  or 300m2, the loneliness is the same.
Whether you fly first class or economy class, if the plane goes down, you go down with it.

One day, you will realise that you true happiness does not come from the material things of this world, but from the simple pleasures of this world.
When you have buddies and old friends, brothers and sisters, family members to chat with, laugh with, talk to, sing to, or sometimes, just to spend quiet time with, that's true happiness that money can't buy.

Don't educate your child to be rich. Educate them to be happy.
So when they grow up, they will know the value of things, not the price.

Eat your food as your medicines. Otherwise, you have to eat medicines as your food.

The One who loves you will never leave you because even if there are 100 reasons to give up, he will find one reason to hold on to.

There is a lot of difference between a human being and being human. Only a few understand it,

You are loved when you are born.
You will be loved when you die.
In between, you have to manage!

The SIX best doctors in the world:

1. Exercise
2. Diet
3. Rest
4. Sunlight
5. Self-confidence and a Positive Attitude
6. Friends

Maintain them well in all stages of life, and you will enjoy a happy, healthy life!

The Long Silence

I'm not sure what got into me.

I must have been insane, leaving my small handful of faithful readers in total darkness.
(Aisha, Cheah Huay and Shio Yen, I am so sorry...thank you for keeping faith in me.)

The unimaginable Long Silence of Three Hundred and Fifty Five days ends here today.

I have to put right my guilty conscience.

Young or old, rich or poor, we all have one thing in common.

We only have twenty-four hours in one day.

Somehow though, I feel that my twenty-four hours seem to run faster than most other people's.

Most Other People can still tick off their to-do list with ease and yet have time to indulge in Candy Crush, Subway Surf, etc. (I lose track of those mindless games found on those Not-So-Smart-phones).

I like to think that my To Do list is longer than Most Other People. 

Or maybe I am just not as efficient as Most Other People.

Mr T says the reason I take longer is because I'm a sticker for perfection!

I beg to differ. I am not a perfectionist. 

I am just a firm believer of the principle: If You Want To Do Something, Do It Right. Do It The Best That You Can.

Perhaps the reality is just that my time management skills are lacking, as is my self-discipline and a general lack of will power to sacrifice beauty sleep over flushing out my thoughts on the keyboard. 

In one simple sentence, I have no one to apportion blame to, but myself. 

Here is my list of "distractions" for the last 12 months.

You be the judge to decide if the Long Silence was even a teeny weeny bit justifiable.

1. Chauffeuring duties have become more hectic this past 15 months since the Little Man started studying at his new kindergarten right along the Federal Highway. Every school week, Monday to Friday, I have to literally crawl through 2 massive traffic congestions, one just outside my neighbourhood and the other greets me at the start of the Federal Highway, just to reach the Little Man's kindie. It takes almost 40 minutes to reach his school to pick him up (compared to the normal 15 minutes it takes to drop him off in the mornings). 40 minutes of traffic madness, every school day. What can I say...it's a very long-established and reputable kindergarten so that my little banana boy can learn his Mandarin that his Mat Salleh Mum can't teach him. After sending lunch to school for the 2 younger princesses and taking into account my 15 minutes lunch break, I have just a little over 2 hours 30 minutes to myself. And that's if I don't have errands to run for that day. Most of the 2 hours 30 minutes is now invested on Item #2 below. 
2. In the second quarter of 2014, I had signed up for a 12 months self-study online internet marketing course (which burned a slight hole in Mr T's pocket), and the clock is ticking for me to complete the course... like yesterday! I am still slogging through and trying very hard to find a suitable niche market (:-( that masses of people have not penetrated yet) to focus on.
3. One of my dear SILs celebrated her wedding in Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur in October last year. Being the first family wedding in years, a considerable amount of time was spent searching for the perfect coordinating outfits (for the day and night events) and accessories for not just for Mr T and I, but for my FOUR young bosses too, who were the flower girls and ring-bearer. It took an especially long time for us to find the perfect dresses for our rather skinny First Princess. After many, many hours of shopping and researching over the internet, we finally found the perfect outfits that complemented her bony frame. She looked fantastic.It was a beautiful wedding, really memorable and needless to say, great fun for the kids. (I will post the beautiful snapshots in a separate post.)
4. Then of course, there was also the planning AND COMPACT packing for the entire family for our two week holiday Down Under. We had to prepare clothing for contrasting weather... chilly spring in Melbourne (which greeted us with cold, blustery winds!) followed by the sweltering heat in Gold Coast and Brisbane. The kiasi side of me prepared for every contingency that I could think of, apart from first aid kits, I also packed a variety of western medication as well as traditional chinese medicine for the kids. The medicines came in handy as Nos. 1 and 2 developed a sore throat and a nasty cough in the first week of our holiday! We still had a great, great holiday.
5. My outsourcing service provider went home to Philippines for a one-month break in December. So there was a lot of gotong-royong to be done at the Zoo with the cleaning and endless laundry. The trickiest part was keeping my sanity whilst feeding, entertaining and managing the zoo inhabitants especially when the CFO was hard at work (or perhaps he was just escaping the chaos at the Zoo :-[ ). To manage the potential chaos, we balik kampung to Singapore for over a week ... that was wonderful, precious time spent with my extended family there. 
6. Perfecting my baking skills! A burning passion of mine.... only if I had more time! And less fat, flab and bulges so that I could bake more and enjoy more sinful baking pleasures! It de-stresses me, enriches my soul (and the kids' too!), adds a wonderful aroma to our home and puts me in a happy mood (which is really good for everyone's soul!) unless the baking turns out disastrous which thankfully does not happen very often. In the last few months, I have experimented with numerous sponge cakes, durian cakes, pineapple tarts, almond tart, fortune cookies...gonna try making my own muesli bars filled with healthy organic rolled oats, almonds, walnuts, pistachios and cranberries! I'm sure the kids would gladly have those for breakfast rather than plain wholemeal bread!
7. Other more routine "distractions" include guiding the Little Empress (who is not so little anymore as the Tween is going to be eleven in 7 months) through her Theory Exam last year (and the efforts were thankfully well rewarded as the Tween scored a Merit for her Grade 2 Theory - her mum could only obtain a pass in all her theory exams); and working hard on the Aural Tests together with the Little Empress and the Little Genius for their piano and violin exams respectively. Rather ironic really, for one who always used to fail her aural test dismally ...truly my one weakness...it cost me my distinction for my Grade 8 piano exams all those years ago. Hence my determination to ensure my girls sail through their aural tests!
8. My last "major distraction" was my decision to undertake major spring cleaning at our beloved Zoo grounds during the year end holidays. I packed away those toys that were way past its play-by date as the kids have outgrown them. Soft-toys were also segregated into 2 categories: Category (a): 'Can't Live Without It' cuddly-toys;  and Category (b): Off To A Better Home To Be Better Appreciated cuddly-toys. Both category of soft-toys were lovingly showered and dried before entering a new lease of life! The sweat and toil was worth the effort as our cupboards and shelves had new-found storage space, the kids LEGO Collection had a display table of its own and the kids at the United Learning Centre had new furry-toys, bags, stationery, hand-me-down clothes and the like. Mission accomplished.

That's my short list of excuses.

I am happy to note that having decided to sacrifice my beauty sleep and my thrice a week exercise for the last month or so, I now have more time to invest in my writing and in my internet business self-study course. Of course on the downside, dark eye-bags and extra flab now reflect back at me in my bathroom mirror! C'est la vie.

I have been jotting down my thoughts and snippets of various events happening at the Zoo in my Little Purple Book.  So whilst the memories are still fresh (almost!), I'll be flushing them out here real soon. Trust me.

.....fingers crossed.

Flashbacks.... how time flies...

Big Sis cradling
the newborn Prince

The Little Empress at 6 months

     Little Empress at 6 years,
carrying our Young Prince

The Young Prince

The Little Genius
(can't miss that huge forehead)

...close up shot

Scary Big Sis !!

Simply Irresistable!

Simply Adorable!

Simply Perfect. 

Truly Blessed.

Checking Out His Anatomy!

The following exchanges recently took place during the Little Man's shower time.

Mr T was showering the Little Man when something triggered off the Little Man declaring to his Daddy, "this one [pointing to his boyhood] when 3 year old is called  "ku-ku-bird", when 4 years old, is called penis right, then when big years old also called penis!".

Fast forward a few days....

As I was soaping the Little Man, he suddenly scooped up the little organs behind his penis, checked them out and asked, "Mummy, what is this thing behind my penis called?!".  The question momentarily stunned me and I quickly debated between "Balls" and "Testes". If I told him those were balls, it would be like his old teacher telling him that the penis was a bird. This would confuse the poor guy thinking he had balls and a bird following him everywhere. In a rather calm tone, I told him those were called 'testes'. "Oh, testes"....came the reply. Satisfied with the answer, he moved on to a different topic of conversation for the remainder of the shower time.

I quietly hoped that he did not remember a time many, many moons ago, when I told him those were for making babies when he becomes a man! On hindsight, that was a mistake to reveal too much information to a young boy.

The little man is growing up fast.
Since turning four, he has tried to assert his independence in many ways. One of which is during toilet visits....gone are the days when he would let his Mummy or Daddy assist in directing the flow of his output into the toilet bowl.  Now, he will push my hands away if I try to help and gallantly say "I CAN DO MYSELF!"

~ Jottings by a blessed Mother.

Bitter Sweet Moments

Publisher’s Note: This is yet another embarrassingly long overdue posting of my jottings that was first written back in 9 November 2012.  Do stick with me whilst I dust off all my old writings that had been abandoned in the Draft folder and dig out precious old memories.

This just proves that time flies by in the blink of an eye, and if one puts off till tomorrow what one can do today, before one knows it, the subject-matters of the posting would have grown up considerably and one would have to live through embarrassing moments like this. ;-)

My baby girl's last day at kindiegarten

Milestones of a Different Kind

9th November 2012......a bitter sweet day.

On this memorable day, my oldest princess graduated from Primary School, whilst my youngest princess graduated from Kindergarten and to make it even more historic, the Little Man started his Montessori playschool this week for trial lessons. How time flies in just a blink of an eye!

It wasn't all that long ago when our First Princess started Primary School. I can vividly remember that very first morning when we left the house before 7 o'clock. As we stepped out of the house and into the car, our First Princess commented "Wah! Mummy..... it is still so dark. Are you sure it is morning already?". That was the start of many beautiful mornings when the First Princess and her Mummy would chit-chat along the way to school whilst admiring the gorgeous early morning skyline with its beautiful tinges of orange, peach, purple and blue.

Fast forward... and almost 6 years later.....Mr T has now taken over to be the primary chauffeur for the morning school runs whilst I run the later shift to take the Little Genius to kindergarten.

It was a rather sentimental drive to the Little Genius' kindergarten this morning as it began to sink in that it would be my last time to chauffeur my little girl to kindergarten. It would be our last kindergarten assembly together...I will miss listening to the carefree children singing their chinese nursery rhymes.They all somehow grow up too fast especially when they reach their primary school years. Sadly, this is also the time when even the slightest tinge of their baby smell totally dissipates to be replaced instead by smelly perspiration! 

Equally unbelievable is that our First Princess is graduating from Primary School. It doesn't seem all that long ago when I would rush to get out of the pressure-cooker that I was then in, to weave through the evening rush-hour traffic to pick my Princess from school. Sheer guilt would set in when I finally reach her school after 6 p.m., where very often, I would find my little girl obediently finishing up her school work in the canteen. Ex-colleagues used to brandish me for sending my kid to a Commando school that had longer hours than a normal working person with 9 - 5 hours! The school hours were officially from 7.30 to 4.15, with only a pathetic 30 minute lunch break. A large number of students would then have extra-activities or tutoring classes from 4.30 until 5.45. Over 10 hours of pure torture especially for those 7 - 8 year old's who had just graduated from kindergarten where life was so much more carefree! 

Needless to say, I have great pity for the young ones having to endure such extremely long hours as I originated from a "Malay national school" where school was for a maximum of 6 hours with little homework to contend with! It does sadden me that the Little Genius will now be leaving behind her carefree kindie days and entering the Commando school. However, Mr T favours the Commando school as he believes that it gives the younger ones very good discipline and toughens them up for the real world later. 

I digress. 

Today was also a historic day for another reason as my Little Man stepped out of his comfort zone when I packed him off to a nearby Montessori playschool for a week of trial lessons for a couple of hours each morning. The Little Man is approaching three years and clearly has an abundance of energy to burn off.  Him sticking to me like a blood-sucking leech all day and dancing & jumping all over me to burn off his excess energy was testing my patience and driving me a little insane. I badly needed some quiet ME time at home...with no kiddo going "Mummy this... Mummy that...! Mummy, Mummy!"

The Little Man was rather excited to go to school as it made him feel like he was a big boy like his sisters going to school. We walked around the playschool and checkout the facilities together. When I explained to him that I could only stay with him at school for a short while to read my newspapers after which I had to go home to prepare his lunch, he began to have second thoughts and the initial excitement quickly subsided. 

Needless to say, my blood-sucking leech held on to me for dear life for the good part of an hour whilst I hung around the playschool to ensure that my poor little leech would not be too traumatised by not having any of his mummy's blood to suck on for the 2 hours that he would be at playschool by himself. I virtually ignored him and just read my newspapers in a little corner of the playschool. My little leech did eventually wander around the playschool area to check out the rabbits in their cages, the wide array of toys as well as the other kids. At times, he wandered off a little further before suddenly realising that his host-parasite was no longer within his visibility and smelling-range. That was when he would come running back to check that I was still sitting in the corner with my newspaper. 

Just under an hour later, I made my escape. I thought I had succeeded in making a discreet exit through the main door of the house, but alas, I heard his screams "Mummy, Mummy, I want my Mummy!" as I opened the school gate to hop into my car. I sat in my car which was parked my the side of the school to ensure all was well before driving home. The hysterical screaming stopped after a few minutes but was instead replaced by heart-wrenching sobs from my Little Man.

He survived the 90 minutes along and I enjoyed the strangely quiet time at home.

My little leech survived the trial week largely unscathed. It was the same old story everyday during the trial week and during the one month holiday program. I'd eased his separation-anxiety by showing him that Mummy was going to park the car under that big tree right next to his playschool and read my newspaper in the car whilst waiting for him to enjoy himself in school. Of course, the intelligent little leech would always ask to see my stack of newspapers in the car for reassurance (which I always had handy); at times he would even remind me to bring the papers along just as we are about to leave home.

After attending the holiday program for about a week, the separation anxiety was much better...no more screaming...just a little teary eyed. The toughest part was to get him to leave the house as he would complain of being very tired and not wanting to change out of his pyjamas. Mid-way through the holiday program, I was able to just drop him at the gates, as he could see the other children saying goodbye to their Mums & Dads at the gates. Though a small part of me pined for the little baby that had just grown up in a few blinks of an eye, I definitely treasured the peace and quiet at home for the entire 3 hours!


Fast forward further to January 2013......

As the Little Genius has just entered the Commando School, my lunch partner has now reduced from a table for three, to a table for two. After picking the Little Man from playschool and freshening him up with a cool shower, the Little Man and I will settle down for lunch. If he is his usual happy self, we will have an enjoyable lunch for two. If he is overly exhausted and is in his whining, tantrum-throwing mood, then it'd be silence at the lunch table and my replacement lunch partner will be the faithful old newspaper.

I dread to think what it would be like in the next 3 or 4 years when the Little Man too enters the Commando School when it'll be a really sad & lonely table for one then.  I really missed my lunches and my interesting conversations with the Little Genius for those initial few weeks ...... like they say,  YOU JUST NEVER KNOW HOW TO REALLY TREASURE WHAT YOU HAVE UNTIL YOU HAVE LOST IT.

So now I really treasure my lunch time with my Little Man. Mr T voices his "enviousness" at the Little Man having the company of yours truly all for himself during lunch.

The Little Genius first few days at the Commando School went smoothly. Though she enjoyed herself as she was now in the same league as her older sister, she did complain about the extra long hours when she lamented "I keep looking at my watch, then think why so long the school bell still haven't ring yet...because I very sleepy in the afternoon. I wait and wait for the school bell to ring!".  Poor lil' girl.  Poor lil' girl who loves her afternoon naps.

Her severely depleted batteries would instantly go into recharge mode when she gets into the car and her personal chauffeur would have a real hard time waking her up once we reach home.

Recharging......spot the blackened knees from
a myriad of activities in school!

The highly popular mobile recharging unit

Fast forward further to January 2014......

I spoke too soon. Just one year on, my lunch company is already reduced to just me, my shadow and the faithful newspaper! We enrolled the Little Man in the same renowned Chinese kindergarten as the one that Mr T had gone to 39 years ago! As enrolment for the first session was already filled up when we registered, we enrolled the Little Man for the 
second session which starts in the late morning to mid-afternoon. This works to our advantage as the first session would have meant struggling to get the Little Man out of the house by 7.30 every morning.The late morning session allows the Little Man to get his beauty sleep, have a good, hearty breakfast, a little play time and a refreshing shower before taking a relaxing drive to school.

The downside is that I have lost my lunch company! The lunch table is now strangely quiet. Though it took a little getting used to after years of noisy lunches, I now use this time to catch up on reading my papers as well as meeting up with friends for lunch. And of course, it also provides me with treasured ME time, where I get to indulge in blogging and baking time!

Just like how it was with the Little Genius, the Little Man will have lots to update me with when I pick him up from school.  Stories that his teacher told him, who said what, and who did what to him in school, who was naughty, who cried, etc. Though the school does provide the Little Man with lunch, he always comes home asking to eat lunch, which by that time, really is afternoon tea. He literally gobbles down the food before he is sent to his bed for a short nap to recharge.

The day goes by so fast as the evening is then filled with chauffeuring the girls home from their Commando School and listening to their respective updates on their commando training for the day, whilst weaving through evening rush-hour traffic. As soon as we arrive home, I remove my chauffeur's hat and replace it with the no-nonsense time-keeper's hat! ..."...hurry up, shower,...hurry up, do your homework, ...hurry up, get ready...time for dinner, ...hurry up, finish your homework, ...hurry up,  pack your bags, ...hurry up, brush your teeth, ...hurry up, go to bed...".  I am always telling the girls that I really just ought to get a voice recorder that I can just switch on every day without having to work myself up!

Though I complain, I know that soon enough, all the chaos will soon end to be replaced by a different set of problems brought on by the teenage years, which Mr T and I are already getting daily doses of, courtesy of our First Princess. In years to come, the posting will probably just read Forgettable Moments. Till then, I will treasure these bitter sweet moments.


~ Written from the Heart
by a blessed Mother of Four who despite her complaints, is savouring all the bitter sweet moments.

Happy Birthday, SILs!

YABBA-DABBA-DOO!!  The Enchanted Lady, my youngest SIL, has just returned home for a short holiday to celebrate her birthday with us. She is a Aussie-based Medical Registrar and has just completed her last ever written medical exams for which she started studying for TWO whole years ago! She is THE most hardworking, dedicated student I have ever come across. Beats Mr T hands-down!

Here are some pictures taken from the recent double birthday celebration.

The Birthday Gals with PIL & MIL

My SILs with PIL & MIL ;-)

A Belated Yee-Sang celebration with the Enchanted Lady

The Birthday Gals!

Birthday Gals with the Little Man!

Happy Faces!

Happy Faces....extended version with cousins, aunt & uncle

     

       'BIL-to-be' couldn't make it for the celebrations, so he sent a bouquet of representatives to replace him

Smiling through mouth stuffed with durian cake

~ Pictorial Post proudly published by Mrs T

An Afternoon in the Life of a Personal Chauffeur

Whilst weaving through the notorious KL traffic, this Personal Chauffeur also has to juggle controlling her emotions and her temper, so as to manage her escalating blood pressure! Read on...


Date: Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Time: From 3.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m.

3.00 p.m.: Chauffeuring Whining King home from school
Picked up the Little Man from nursery. He was his usual chatty self, telling me all about his day in school whilst I drove through traffic on the way home. He started talking about his friends' antics.
He moved on to talk about another classmate and that is when the entire drama began.
Little Man: "... there that small boy......what's his name, ah, Mummy?".
Driver: "Huh? Which one?"
Little Man: "There, that one, the small, small, boy. Yesterday that one."
Driver: "Joshua (the only small boy I know in his class as he was born year-end and is really tiny. And he was THE only boy I had bumped into yesterday when I dropped the Little Man at school)".
Little Man: "No, not Joshua."
Driver: "If not Joshua, then Mummy doesn't know."
Little Man: "There, that one, the small, small, one. Yesterday that one."
Driver: "I don't know, Darling".
... and he went on and on and on and on.

The Little Man suddenly got all worked up because his Mum just did not know the name of "that small, small one [boy]". He started kicking the back of my driver's seat and starts whining and crying and whining and crying......all I can hear between his sobs are "There, that one, the small, small, one.". The whining and crying went on endlessly.

I looked into my rear-view mirror and see The Whining King sitting in the Little Man's car-seat. For a moment, I actually wondered if I had picked up the wrong kid!! It was that bad!
Guess there are just no limits for a frustrated, hungry & tired kid!

Annoyance and frustration kicked in for both driver and passenger. Big time.
Chauffeur went into automatic lecture mode.
"LOOK, Mummy only knows 5 of your friends' names. CH (his best friend), M, KY, A and J. Mummy doesn't know anyone else. Why do you want to get angry at Mummy and throw your temper-tantrum? If you don't know your friend's name, just ask your friend or your teacher. Don't throw your temper-tantrum. JUST STOP WHINING."

Apart from the occasional sniff, there was total silence in the car for the remaining 500 metres before reaching home.

Upon reaching home, my helper greeted His Majesty at the doorway. That started off The Whining King again and his siren blared even louder. Whine...whine...whine...whine...whine. 
Totally Unbearable. 
I told my helper to ignore The Whining King.  I regret not recording the entire drama on video. That would have been pure entertainment for you.

He continued to whine, inter-spaced by his sobs.  I dutifully and silently served him his favourite Spaghetti Bolognese for his afternoon tea. His siren continued to blare. I gave him the choice of eating, or foregoing one of his favourite meals and going straight to bed. I then walked away to regain my sanity.

A couple of minutes later, I heard the clink-clanking of cutlery. I slowly made my way back into the dining room. Lo and behold, it was the Little Man who greeted me, behaving as though nothing had happened in the preceding 30 minutes. I quickly looked around; there was no sign of The Whining King. Unbelievable. The Little Man licked his platter spotlessly clean.

Needless to say, he fell asleep for his afternoon nap as soon as his head touched his pillow.

Peace. Alleluia.


4.30 p.m.: Chauffeuring 'Princess of the Day' home from school
As soon as the Little Man got to Dreamland, I jumped into my car and zoomed off to pick Kiddo 3 from school. I normally pick the girls together but today was an exception, as Kiddo 3 had an extended 1 hour violin class at an earlier than normal time. With the kids still having their on-off prolonged cough since the start of the year, I wanted to ensure that Kiddo 3 who had the weakest immune system, had as much sleep as she could. If it meant having to make an additional trip to town to chauffeur her home to shower and eat her dinner before her music class so that she could sleep just that one hour earlier, so be it. The alternative would have been for Kiddo 3 to shower 30 minutes before bedtime, hence pushing back her bedtime and risk her catching a chill from showering late at night and worse, risk the dreaded cough from returning with a vengeance.  After all, I did decide to quit my corporate job to be a personal chauffeur, amongst others (huh, I must have been insane at the time....blame it on post-natal hormones running haywire)!

Kiddo 3 was as happy to see me, as I was to see her after the earlier drama. We had a lovely mother-daughter chat all the way home.  No issues. No drama. For this simple reason, she is the 'Princess of the Day' .
(By the way, in case any of my other under-aged employers are reading this, 'Princess of the Day' is not a fixed term for Kiddo 3. It just so happens that there was no drama surrounding her for today and we had a "yabba-dabba-doo"time.)

The Powers Above were really kind to me today.  Traffic was unusually smooth ... no traffic build-up near school. Managed to do a round trip within 40 minutes during school peak hour. Very, very unusual.


5.15 p.m.: Picking Sulky Teen from school

After dropping Kiddo 3 home and giving my helper strict instructions to ensure that Kiddo 3 showers immediately followed by early dinner, I zoom off to pick Kiddo 1 from school. The onward journey from Kiddo 1's school to Kiddo 2's school started of well... that is, until I asked her about lunch. When I heard that Kiddo 1 only picked out tofu, pak choy, cabbage and egg for lunch from a wide range of dishes, I immediately visualised a pathetic plate of plain white rice, with little bits of tofu, pak choy, cabbage and egg.  It would surely have been just a small portion of what she would normally eat. I almost went ballistic.

She admitted that apart from processed meat (Mr T strongly discourages the kids from eating processed meats. Sausages are the biggest NO, NO.), there was actually meat in the choice of dishes available but "I just didn't feel like it". So that was it. My old, faithful voice-recorder went on auto-pilot and started playing again and again ...."you must have a balanced diet, cannot be choosy, don't like also must eat, just carbs with no protein will not help you to grow taller, put on weight, reach puberty, blah...blah...you are desperate to put on weight, right? so you must have a balanced diet, cannot be choosy, don't like also must eat,........". Needless to say, as soon as the good ol' voice-recorder went on auto-pilot, I had a sulky teen, pouting away in the passenger seat next to mine.

Why did I go ballistic? Yes, perhaps on hindsight, I did react a little Over.The.Top. 
Perhaps it was all that zooming around town in the sweltering heat. 
Perhaps I caught The Whining King's bug. 
Or, perhaps I was just being an overly concerned mother.

You see, Kiddo 1 is very thin. Chopstick thin. There have been many a time when I have been interrogated by well-meaning strangers as to whether I actually feed Kiddo 1! The truth is she does eat. She eats a lot actually. But she IS an extremely fussy eater! Perhaps that is why she just can't put on any weight. She only eats what she is accustomed too and is not at all adventurous when it comes to food! That's a NO to a lot of the super foods out there, including NO mushrooms, NO sea cucumber, NO white/black fungus, NO fat (she will diligently scrape off all fat found lingering on chicken & pork pieces) and definitely nothing gooey nor suspicious looking.

As Kiddo 1 is in her vital growing teenage years, Mr T and I have been reminding (borderline lecturing!) her the importance of having a balanced meal which includes the Super Foods, to ensure that she receives all the vital nourishment during this time as that is when she will experience her growth spurts, develop her womanly curves and reach puberty. She has also expressed her anxiety at the fact that she is one of the last of her friends to reach puberty. I have consulted my gynaecologist on this and she assures me that there is no need to worry until and unless one does not have her first menses by the time one turns 16. Only then will they investigate.  Nonetheless, it is a cause for concern. 

So, if you have any ideas on how to "FIX" my fussy Chopstick and help her to attain puberty, drop me a note! Anxiety levels are peaking as her 14th birthday fast approaches.

5.45 p.m.: Picking up Ms What,lah! from school

Straight after picking up Sulky Chopsticks, the Chauffeur's next assignment was to pick up Ms What,lah! from school. Ms What,lah! is the new pseudonym given to Kiddo 2 after she relinquished her Whining Championship title to her brother. Since turning 9, she has learnt to answer back more, and is very defensive in her response to almost anything. Before one has a chance to finish speaking, she would almost always have something to say to rebut whatever one may be speaking about.  And when she is unable to provide a fast enough response, she would just blurt out, "WHAT,LAH!?". Needless to say, this has scored her many one-to-one lectures especially with her dear Daddy.

I digress.

After exchanging pleasantries with Ms What,lah!, we began talking about her day at school and she immediately lamented on how hungry she was at lunchtime. "Huh?...Didn't Mummy pack enough food for you?" came the Chauffeur's reply. Ms What,lah! then explained that her Class Teacher had kept many of the students back during the pathetically short 30 minute lunch break as she wanted them to re-do their Mandarin spelling until they got it all correct. 

As a result, Ms What,lah! who together with a few of her friends, were the last in the queue to get their exercise books marked, missed the entire 30 minute lunch break, as the Teacher wanted to mark their work and ensure their spelling was all correct before allowing them to fill up their rumbling stomach with some much needed food! It was only when the bell rang to signify the end of their lunch break that they were allowed by Ms Psycho to go for lunch!! I was fuming mad! Really fuming mad. 

I asked Ms What,lah! what happened to those of her classmates whose parents did not send lunch over to school as the canteen would surely have run out of food by then.  She told me of her best friend who ended up eating just a couple of biscuits that she had in her school bag for her lunch. Upon hearing this, my blood started to reach boiling point.

Needless to say, I conveyed my displeasure to politically correct Mr T and asked him to convey our displeasure in a gentlemanly manner as I knew I would lose my cool if I approached Ms Psycho myself. Mr T agreed and conveyed our strong views on depriving the poor students of their lunch to Ms Psycho the next morning when he sent the girls to school. He suggested to Ms Psycho that the students should be allowed to have a quick lunch first, before going back to the class to re-take their spelling test.

Ms Psycho must have taken note of the matter as since our complaint, Ms Psycho has allowed Ms What,lah! and her classmates to have lunch for a full 600 seconds before summoning those who did not score full marks for their spelling, back to the classroom. Once they have re-taken their spelling test, and score full marks for it, they are allowed to resume their lunch break for whatever remaining lunchtime that is left. This happens every single school day! I pity those poor 10 year old school kids!

Perhaps I should start a petition with the other school parents that Ms Psycho be allowed to only have 600 seconds to eat her lunch!!!

Editor's note: To be fair, Kid#2 has stopped snapping "What, lah!" for the last couple of weeks. Perhaps I should now label her the Come-back Kid, because on the following day, she scored a perfect score in her Chinese spelling and was able to eat her lunch for the entire 30 minutes.

6.40 p.m.: Walk Kiddo 3 to her music class
After all that drama, I was more than happy to walk the 'Princess of the Day' to her music class and be kid-free for the 8 minute walk back from the music school back to the Zoo. Eight minutes of peace and quiet. Treasured right up to the last second.


So there we have it.
Uncontrollable temper tantrums.
Sulky teen, pouting away.
Starved by an unreasonable teacher.
Growing Pains. Multiply 4 times.


Here's a video I found of the The Little Man when he first started to master the art of whining almost 2 years ago. He has since been crowned champion.  Fingers crossed, he will soon relinquish the title to some other unknown kid out there.
P.S. Listen out for Kiddo 3 enjoying her brother's "limelight"!!

To Cut or not to Cut?

The Abashed Editor's note: This post was originally drafted way back in 15 October 2012 and was sadly abandoned in the draft folder for unknown reasons. The dust has since been embarrassingly wiped off, minor grammatical edits carried out with the necessary polishing prior to posting almost 16 months after the events described below took place. Better late than never...please do bear with me.

***************************************************************************************

I spoke too soon.
Not long after finishing off my original draft for my "Hold My Hand" posting, the Little Man rapidly moved up a couple of notches on the Cheekiness Scale. The crazy thing is that one of my SILs (acronym for sister-in-law) and I have noticed that after every haircut, the Little Samseng seems to get naughtier and more daring in his stunts! I know it is hard for anyone to imagine, but trust me, it is so true. So much so, that I am now so weary of taking the Little Samseng for his next haircut! Perhaps I should just let him grow his hair out and let him rock the world as a Little Hippie!

Here's the proof after his latest haircut:

1. The Little Samseng took a small stick from who-knows-where at GrandPa (Yeh-yeh) and GrandMa's house and put it in his mouth after dinner one night. GrandMa immediately told him off before reporting his mischief to Mr T and I as we were enjoying some quiet time at the dinner table. The Little Man was duly punished when we reached home as Mr T locked him outside the house in the garage and reprimanded him for a whole five minutes.

The next day, whilst the Little Samseng and I were on our way to pick the Little Genius from kindergarten, we drove past a police rider who had stopped a car by the side of the road. The Little Man promptly said" Mummy, see Policeman ... Policeman catch Daddy ... then giggled to himself. When I stared at him from my rear-view mirror, he then said "policemen, catch Mummy also!" whilst chuckling to himself.


2.The Daily Afternoon Warfare
This October month has been a constant struggle with the Little Samseng to keep to his sleeping routine, i.e. sleeping till at least 9.00 a.m. in the mornings and a 2 hour nap every afternoon. Since that fateful day when we brought him for his latest haircut, the Jackyl in him has taken a back step whilst Mr Hyde is on full display! He now punctually wakes up between the timeframe of 7.45 and 8.10a.m. and his afternoon nap has not reached anywhere the 60 minute mark so far this month! As a result, the Little Samseng now closely resembles Kungfu Panda whilst his blessed mother's already short wick is getting shorter and the fuse is ready to blow up at anytime!

The Little Panda would come up with a string of excuses to not sleep and this had tested my patience to its maximum. His excuses would range from stomach ache (his all time favourite, and the complaint would almost always be accompanied by some sort of wriggling in pain action on the floor), drink water, see Yeh-Yeh, etc.  Dynamites have been exploding left, right and centre for the first ten days of October. I am slowly learning to accept that certain things just can't be changed, so I just need to adapt and accept that I will have very little ME time for at least the next five years.

Before the warfare started this afternoon, I told the Little Samseng to "sleep for so, so long, otherwise I will tell Pin Ku-Ku and Ta Ku-Ku not to give you any Kungfu Panda chocolates (which Ta Ku-Ku had just bought for them from Beijing). The Little Samseng responded to say " I like Yeh-Yeh. I kiss Yeh-Yeh, then Yeh-Yeh give Ching Tom Kungfu Panda chocolate." Upon hearing my response that "Mummy will then tell Yeh-Yeh not to give Ching Tom any chocolate", the Little Samseng replied with a smirk on his face "I kiss Yeh-Yeh two times then Yeh-Yeh give Ching Tom Kungfu Panda chocolate!".

Now, do you sympathise?


3. Ninja Warrior

Lately, the Little Genius, the Little Samseng and their Loyal Slave have been glued to Ninja Warrior on Disney XD channel every weekday lunch time. It is amazing how the urge to watch Ninja Warrior can inspire the Little Genius to gobble up her lunch within 30 minutes (as she is barred from watching it if she exceeds that time frame). Whilst watching the programme, the Little Samseng's vivid imagination always leads him to believe that the living room sofa chairs, stools and his Loyal Slave are part of the obstacles on the Ninja Warrior course.
Just this afternoon, as I was prepping the Cheeky Samseng for his afternoon nap, he proudly proclaimed himself as the Ninja Warrior and pointed at his Loyal Slave and proclaiming her as "Mummy is Naughty Warrior"!.


I am convinced that The Powers Above intentionally bestowed on all babies and toddlers that irresistable baby smell as it really does act like and antidote for me. When the Little Samseng tries to light up the short wick on my dynamite, my nose will instinctively find its way near to the Little Samseng's rock solid head to get a good sniff of his baby smell. Those couple of sniffs immediately act like an antidote and calms me down and halts my blood pressure from rising any further. Unfortunately, it does not work all the time especially now as he grows older and the irresistable baby smell is partially replaced by the unmistakable sweat of the the Ninja Warrior!!


~ Written by a walking dynamite who is very blessed to have the Little Samseng as her son.

Learning to lose the small battles to win the war

Lately, the stress levels at the Zoo has been escalating due partly to this being the final term exams period. My temper levels have also being soaring from having to deal with a variety of service issues involving the outsourcing of my domestic cleaning services to my Personal Assistant. My hectic schedule juggling jobs as a personal chauffeur, kitchen stockist, personal tutor and managing my lunch catering business for my two exclusive young clients coupled with my "I-can-do-it-all-don't-want-to-let-go-attitude", has meant that ME TIME and lunch outings with friends have been put way down the bottom of my To Do list, until recently.

It was therefore a much welcomed breath of fresh air when I went out on two lunch dates for two consecutive weeks with a mixture of old friends. I particularly enjoyed my first lunch date with a good friend of mine; our boys share the exact same birth date, less than 12 hours apart. We exchanged stories of our little menaces, their individual milestones and their missions to test their Mummy's boundaries! Though she raised an eye-brow or two when I told her of the corporal punishments that I mete out on my Zoo inhabitants ranging from the ages of 3 to 13, she could feel my exasperation at the various battles that I have to deal with on a daily basis with my four beloved monkeys. My friend, Gin, specialises in people development.

Her word of advice to me, which I constantly remind myself, is :
"Lose the small battles, to win the war".

This is sometimes easier said than done, especially when one is hovering around like a little dynamite with a short fuse!

~ Written by an exasperated Mother-of-Four-Little-Darlings
that-can-be-angels-one-minute,-and-little-monsters-the-next
and who is constantly working at lengthening her infamous short fuse!

Nails Falling Out - The Aftermath of A Blistering Time

28 October 2013

Just as we thought that the entire Hand, Foot & Mouth episode was history, our first HFM patient, Kid 2, suddenly discovered that her nails were about to create another nightmare a month after recovering from HFM rashes and blisters! Two of her fingernails on her right hand slowly dislodged itself from the the cuticles literally overnight and started falling out! I had briefly read about this happening to some Mat Salleh children when I first googled HFM on the internet during our first HFM attack. The mother of that blog warned of severe peeling of the skin as well as fingernails falling out!

It happened sometime after K2 shed her skin, so to think that the HFM virus was still creating havoc to their little bodies was rather upsetting! K3 was the next to have peeling nails. K1 had just slight peeling of the outer nail on one or two of her fingernails. K4's peeling was relatively minor too. As for me, a couple of my nails especially on those fingers that were badly blistered, started to split and dropped off too.

~ Jottings by an Exhausted Mother of Four
who continues to have horror flashbacks when she hears of the three letter words H-F-M.

Ewww....

Ouch!

YUCKS!