Sink, No Sync

This weekend, we are all out of sync and sinking.
Gadget-Daddy left for Singapore on Friday, leaving our weekend in some subtle kind of chaos.

Out of Sync.
It all started with a text message from my older sister in Singapore on Friday morning.
We had planned for this trip for more than 2 weeks and they boys had been really excited. Up to the very last minute, my younger sister and I were putting together a party pack for the 4 kids to celebrate Xue Han's birthday. I had also stayed up to 2 am on Thursday night packing stuff and filling the immigration card. We were all so so ready to go.
Friday morning, got the boys up for breakfast and changed and suddenly I saw the message from my sis saying her daughter has fever and cough. "You might want to reconsider bringing your kids."

The 4 cousins, CNY 2008

So the drama began with the boys crying, still wanting to go, but cannot go without Mommy and Mommy can't go because Myron has no food source except Mommy and he cannot risk being exposed to some germs/virus because he is too young. We spent two hours talking to the boys, bargaining, etc. (plus having to deal with anxious Grandma motherhen-ing around us all). Finally, Max decided he was going to go anyway* and so we packed his clothes from our suitcase (which was already in the car boot since the night before) into a small bag and handed his passport to his father, who was, actually, totally serious about taking him along, as he believed he could handle him "by himself" (besides there being other adults around, but they are not exactly counted as they are not from our home).

So we Max went off with Gadget-daddy in the car.
Our secret back-up plan was that Max be left at my mum's house when Gadget-daddy goes to pick her up for the trip. (She was getting a lift to go down Singapore to make rice-dumpling for my sister. We had also planned this weeks before.) I will then go pick Max up from there a little later, using grandpa's car, and send Ee-ee to work too.
Of course Gadget-daddy was seriously planning to take Max, as I'd said, but my sister called from Singapore, and again said her daughter is quite sick and we'll just have to wait for 2 more weeks for the school break before we get to see them. So I called Gadget-daddy that we'd have to use the back-up plan (Plan B? C? Oh, I can't keep track).

The whole time after Gadget-daddy left the house with Max, I was getting an ear-full from Grandma about how rash and silly we were letting the little boy go with his father alone. So when I finally told her that we are going to pick Max up from my mom's, Grandma was all too eager to follow along, as if she needs to see that Max still here for herself, asap. Unfortunately for her, Grandpa had left the house for his morning jog (couldn't stand the drama enfolding at that time) without any house keys. So she had to stay home with Myron after all, and that set us back like a whole hour "behind schedule" as it took her time to change, going out to try to look for Grandpa, and then me having to express milk for Myron**.

Micah loves taking photos with baby Myron.

So I finally left with Micah to go get Max and Ee-ee and headed off to a usual hang-out mall. We headed for the pasta place, and were obviously their first customer for the day (who eats pizza/ pasta at 11am?). But the pasta was not made right (they over-cooked the sauce, but we did not complain) and then one of the boys had a toilet accident because he was too buzy playing and did not mention the need for the toilet (which was like 200m away) till it was too late. So we ended up having to buy pants because we had used grandpa's car and there are no extra clothes for them there.

Finally Ee-ee went to work and we headed home.


Sinking in pee.
I was reading Toddlerdaddy's post on potty training his four-year-old and thought, "Yes, we should be making more effort night potty-training our almost 5 who like to have a bottle of milk (another thing to wean of soon) just before bed."

So for the past four days, Micah was doing well, as he goes to bed about 9.30 pm, and then we will wake him up to go to the toilet about 12am before we end our day. Then mommy will get him to go the the toilet again about 6am after the baby feeds. We have been so proud of ourselves for the whole week. Then after Gadget-daddy left on Friday morning, that night, Mommy*** fell asleep with the boys and was woken up at 3 am by Max (who had been sleeping without diapers for about 2 months now) crying that his pants was wet. He was actually sleeping on my bed. Then I looked and saw that the other one had also wet his bed. So, exactly, like Toddlerdaddy, I had to peel off pee-clad boys in the middle of the night.

All these might have just slip from being blogged about if the same incident as last night did not JUST happen (and I had changed the sheets this morning, and will have to do so again tomorrow). After changing the boys I was lying in bed and thinking about blogging this, and thought, Oh, if only there are wires I could hook up to my brain and get the computer to jot down my thought... Then the picture of a cyborg came to mind and it was just too freaky. So I had better just do what I want to do.

Oh, Can't wait for Gadget-daddy to be home tomorrow evening.

Now I am ready to feed the baby.

* Part of the drama/problem was because we made the mistake in saying we will take the boys to school, since they are up and dressed, but you know that's just "Preposterous!" that was to them as they were suppose to go for a holiday to see their beloved cousins and not school. After all, we had told them the day before that it was the "last day of school." And Max is just the least keen kindy-goer any kid could be.


** If you're wondering why I did not just strap Myron in a carseat, which we do have, and bring him along, Well, it would have given grandma another bout of high blood pressure as she is always worried about babies crying and then they might vomit and then choke in their vomit. Plus, it poses too much a danger as it might also distract the driver and cause an accident. Plus we have the other 2 kids in the car... *sigh* I am not worried, really, but I know she will be at her wits end thinking of me alone with 3 boys in the car on my way back. I listen to the old folks too much. If I had insisted on leaving with Myron, I know she would have chosen to come along and leave poor grandpa standing for hours at the front of our gate.


*** Besides the fact that we had had a dramatic morning that started at 7am, and that I did not sleep till 2.30 am the night before, I never realised how much I have been pushing my body to work for me around my 4 guys. So the only reason I usually stay up till 12am is because then I can have some time with Gadget-daddy, usually involving some adult conversations, like reporting what the boys did the whole day from my side, and some ranting from either/both sides. Occasionally we watch a bit of a movie and I am also, quite often, required to go rummage and whip something out of the kitchen.