Chewing My Nails

If I were they type to chew on my nails, I would have lost a lot of my finger nails today.

Max had quite a fall today at Ah-Ma's house. He had had a soft candy which he held in his hand and when done he said "sticky". He headed to the sink to wash and I went along side him as fast as I could (he's running really fast these days). He pulled out a stool which Micah had just used to wash his hands and climbed on it. I went up beside him, made sure he stood on it steadily and turned on the tap.

Then the next thing I knew "swoosh" and "Waaah!" Some how the whole stool slid off and he landed with his head on the floor. I appeared as cool as I could as I picked him up and tried to comfort him but I knew it was a hard fall and crash on his head. He refused all distractions and even refused to nurse. I was really scared. After what seemed a like eternity, he started to pay attention to what we were showing him outside the window. I asked him a few questions of his interest: What color is Lightning McQueen? Doc Hudson? Sally? Dory? Nemo? He answered them correctly and with a smile each time.

Half an hour later he nursed and fell asleep and we went home. I prayed all the way home and was contemplating if I should call Daddy to let him know (I am the type who will feel better by just talking about my anxieties, even in situations no one can do anything about). I watched him carefully the whole day. He is alright. By night time still no vomiting so He is all ok. My mum called to check on him too. We are all relief and thankful.

I don't take anything for granted. A friend of mine was mopping the floor when his then 3 year old son woke up and ran out, slipped and landed on his head. He was unconscious and woke up half an hour later at the hospital, vomiting. He fractured his skull. He is all ok now, Thank God, but that's one scary story too close to home.


Later in the evening, while playing with some of my old sports medals (plastic and it's not sharp at all, more like a hockey puck), Micah slipped and hurt his finger. I did not see what happened exactly as I was in the kitchen, but his uncle brought him to me and his left middle finger was bleeding. He was of course screaming and crying, but allowed me to hold a kitchen towel over the finger for a while and then put a plaster on. I have yet to take a closer look, as he was quite traumatized by the pain and shock. I think he flipped and broke the nail right in the middle. Ouch! Poor baby.

A few weeks back, Micah fell down the stairs. He rolled down 6 steps and landed on his back at the mid-section of our stairs. I must have screamed, because Grandma rushed up and said she heard the yells, but I really can't remember doing that. Of course Micah was screaming and crying. He and I were both in shock. I didn't see how he fell, except the last bit of him landing on his back.

Before that I was feeding Micah and Max some soup on the landing upstairs. They were bouncing on an up-side down basket and I was scolding them because it was such a potential for accidents. As I bent down to pick the basket up, Micah ran behind me and Then he was at the bottom of the 6 steps. Everyone freaked out, and until today when Max walks down the stairs, he will occasionally remember and say, "Koh koh, bomm." (Big bro fell.)

There was this boy at the playgroup who broke his arm because he fell down the stairs, and that was just a three step fall. Just thinking back of Micah's fall makes my heart pound and gasp for air.

Maybe because they are boys, or it's boys at this age, but there is sure to be some kind of accidents ever day. Either one or both the boys would have bumped their head, or knee, or scraped a knee or clipped a finger. (They are running and jumping about almost all the time, so what would you expect, right?) Most of the time it's really quite minor and nothing that a cuddle and a little rub or a plaster could help sooth the pain. But there are so many scary stories of children and bad accidents. So far I am just so thankful to the Almighty God that my boys, despite their accidents everyday, are OK.
(Heart pounding still.)

"Smack Me On The Head"

"You smacked me on the head!" Micah cried.
"What?" I didn't do that!" replied a shocked grandpa.
"No, no. I thought you smacked me on the head. I made a mistake," giggled a cheeky Micah.

For the first couple of times Micah said that I was wondering where that came from. Then I realised that he must have picked it up from our conversation. It was like this:

The day Mike was coming back from Singapore was also the day my brother would be at my mom's for the evening. We had hoped to meet for dinner, but he and his wife had other plans. So it ended up the boys and I had dinner at my mom's and then we went to Parkson together with my other bro for ice-cream at McD's. After a happy dessert, we walked about and just as we were leaving, I caught sight of a father hitting his son (about 7 or 8), slapping him on the head across the face. He did it twice in succession. Later as we were going up the escalator towards the car park, we heard some wailings on another floor. We got distracted at the toys section and by the time we got to the car, I saw that That family had parked their car a couple of lots from our car but the carpark was almost empty, so they looked like they parked next to us. The child was standing by the car, sobbing uncontrollably, traumatised for sure. The father stood a little distance away from the car smoking a cigarette.

I was very disturbed by the whole incident. While we drove out of the car park, I spoke to my mum in Hokkien about what I had seen. She also mentioned her disapproval. Still, it did not release my distress. An hour later, I picked Mike up at the train station and that was when I related the whole "Smack on the head" incident to him. Until now I feel a great unrest, still able to see the poor child looking too traumatised to get into his car.

So now I have to look Micah in the eye every time he said "Smack(ed) me on the head" and tell him that that is not a good thing to do and to never do that. It may sound funny when he says it cheekily, or should teenagers sarcastically say it to tease each other out of jest, but after a witness of that kind of child abuse, it is no where near a laughing matter.

I still feel awful now, that was a 3-days-ago incident.

Sleep! Sleep!

My boys don't like to sleep. It doesn't help for the fact that Daddy and I are night birds, and of late Daddy's been getting back from work about 11pm.

This evening, after their nap, both the boys got on to the internet to play some games on the Thomas and friends website and also another kids' activity site. Then I managed to get them off the computer to get out for some fresh air. We walked about the back of the house, they spotted some new kittens, caught a ladybug, got wet playing with water and then had their bubble bath. After dinner their uncle and his wife came over and played with them while I showered and made a phone call.

Then it was "Finding Nemo" the whole night, watching the cartoon, bouncing on and off the bed (on to a mattress on the floor), dancing to the song, more scene selections, more bouncing on the bed... By the time I got Max to brush his teeth it was already 10.45pm. Coaxed him to nurse to sleep.
"Sleep, Max. Sleep!"
"Downstairs. Swing"
So we went down. While i was putting on a nursery rhyme vcd, they got distracted and climbed about the sofa. So I took Micah away to brush his teeth. Came back and grandpa was helping Max into his hammoc swing. I put Micah into his.
"Sleep, you guys. Sleep."

After like 7 songs, with Micah talking all the time, Max requested, "Upstairs. Nan-nan"

So we all went up back to our room. Micah asked for more computer time. "No." was the answer immediately. He asked for milk in replacement.

Finally both boys in bed and ready to sleep...or so it seemed! Pillow fight - started by Micah.
"Sleep! Sleep!"
Max gave in to sleep at last. While he was nursing, Micah asked for a video clip on the PSP. Got Max off to dreamland at 12am.

Micah was winding down when daddy finally walked into the room, just got back from work. Mommy went down to fix Daddy his dinner and Micah quietly slipped downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Micah, go up now. I'm coming up already."
No reply. He had found some other distractions in the kitchen.

Walking up the stairs, with daddy's dinner, I felt like a Mom of a teenager : nag, nag, nag... "Sleep!"
Gave Daddy his dinner and lay on the bed with Micah. He started quoting obscure lines from some cartoons, and humming to himself. It took a bit more scolding (Sleep! Sleep!) before he finally fell asleep. 1am!

This is just one of those days I feel like I should had held a whip at 10pm. Now all is asleep and I have to do the dishes and some final preparations for a be-early Christmas party we are attending tomorrow.

...still feeling worked up. Maybe I'll just play a game on the PSP to cool down after the dishes...

Astronauts

Micah woke up this morning and the first thing he said was:

Micah : We are home.
Mommy: Where did you go?
Micah : We were in outer-space. You did not come with me. Just the 2 boys.
Mommy: Wow! What did you see? Did you see the planets?
Micah : Yes. We were with the astronauts. Then they brought us back.
Mommy: Wow.
Micah : That was amazing.

Yes, that was amazing. He has told us many of his dreams before but this is the first that Mommy's got recorded.

Bugs Bugs Bugs

These are some of the things we have caught in our backyard. The bugs we catch are kept in transparent lunch boxes which are not air tight. This makes it easy for Micah to carry the bugs around and view them.

Micah's all time favourite is the ladybird/ladybug. We usually keep them for not more than 30 hours as we can't get any aphids to feed them. Only once he had insisted on keeping a lady bug longer than 48hours and the poor thing died of starvation.

Of course we still keep a ladybug grub (yellow and hairy) or two whenever it's in season and we are all thrilled to release new ladybugs into the backyard when they have come out of their crystallizes.

Sometimes, when we can't find any ladybug, he will settle for small grasshoppers. The most we had was three in a container and we fed them quite well for a few days. Then I persuaded him to let them go.

Once grandma caught a big katydid which was a real rare treat. You can really explain camouflage. But it did not want to feed on any leaf so we had to let it go after 36hours. It was still alive!!


Other creatures Micah takes captive for pleasures are spiders and millipedes.

Guess the old rhyme of "What are Little Boys Made of" is true in this aspect, "frogs and snails and puppy dog tails", and bugs too!!

Sleep Talking

I sleep with three boys. All the boys talk in their sleep.

I don't know if sleep talking is deemed as a disease, as in the case of sleep walking. Sleep talking is of course less dangerous than sleep walking, but it is probably just as amusing.


Max was sign talking in his sleep before he started talking. Once while we stayed over at my mum's, My sis and I were chatting right through the night. So we were absolutely amused when we saw Max sitting up, eyes still firmly shut, and gesturing "nothing" with both his hands! Max's first words spoken in his sleep were, "Car, car." He once tried saying "thanks" and it came out as "Tans, tans, tans," in his sleep. These days he will cry out "Mamee, Mamee" and also "nan-nan, Nan-nan" when he wants to nurse (more of comfort sucking).


Micah usually replay his every day stress in his sleep. Often he will cry out, "No, Max!" or "Not like that! Not like That! Waaah!" One in a while we get quite funny quips like, "Yah, yah. That's right. That's right." Sometimes he giggles in his sleep too.
Just now, as he was drifting into dreamland, eyes already firmly shut, he started telling me, "Centipedes can bite you. Millipede cannot bite you. Even the big millipedes cannot bite you. Scorpions can sting you. So can hornets and bees..." Those were his preoccupations for today.


Daddy talks in his sleep too. Often he seems to be still working on what a friend called "screen saver mode." Even though he is physically asleep, his brain seems to be still at work. (Is this like The Matrix or what?!) He would be saying things, all the computer and IT jargons, that I can't even repeat. Occasionally he seems to be holding conversations with foreigners and he speaks "American". Only once he spoke in Cantonese. He must be dreaming of his badminton buddies. Often I would mention to him that he was talking in his sleep and he would ask me what he said. Duh? Of course I can't repeat those stuff. can't even remember what they sounded like.



When I was studying Linguistics in my TESL degree, I remember the lecturer mentioning that your mother tongue is the language you dream in. Guess our mother tongue is English-manglish.

Max 10

These I think are Max's List of Top 10...
.. for now.



Movies:
1. Cars
2. Shrek 2
3. Finding Nemo
4. Robots
5. Jack-Jack Attack (The Incredibles DVD extra)
6. Ant Bully (Actually the short animations in the DVD extra)
7. Scrat's Adventure: Gone Nutty (Ice Age DVD extra)
8. Thomas and Friends
9. Toy Story
10. Dinosaur (Disney's)


Songs:
1. Accidentally in Love (from Shrek 2)
2. Real Gone (Cars)
3. Life Could be a Dream (Cars)
4. Life is a Highway (Cars)
5. Baa Baa Black Sheep
6. She'll be Coming Round the Mountain
7. Zoo Song
8. ---
9.---
10.---


Animals:
1. Elephant
2. Giraffe
3. Llama
4. Goose
5. Cat
6. Rabbit
7. Frog
8. Dog
9. Turtle/tortoise/terapin
10. Fish


Food (proper):
1. Chicken with rice
2. Alphabet pasta in ABC soup
3. Fish with rice
4. Pork with rice
5. Noodle
6. Rice porridge with yeow-char-kuey
7. Fish head curry
8. Mushroom soup
9. Spinach soup
10. Fruits: Banana, Longan, Papaya, Honeydew, Durian.


Food (junk):
1. Sweets
2. Ice-cream
3. Chocolate
4. Potato chips
5. Muruku
6. Cookies
7. ---
8. ---
9. ---
10. ---


These are the thrills of an almost 2 of his generation.
These are the things to want to remember by.




Photos: Taken in the span of 4 minutes while watching Shrek 2.

Micah's Word of the Day

I was taking him out of the bath tub today when he asked,
"What is attract?"

Mommy: "It's like when you see something you like and want to see more of it, or take a closer look. Like you are attracted to trains and tractors."

Micah: "Like the butterfly attracted another butterfly..."

Mommy: "Yes, because of their colourful wings, right?" (We had just read this in a book 2 nights ago.)

Micah: "Or I am attracted to you. Also max and Mah mah..."

Mommy: "Yeah...(giggle) ok. Thank you."

Done dressing him.

Micah: "What's that again, Mommy? What track?"

Mommy: "Oh, you mean 'attract'?"

Micah: "Yeah. Attract. I am also attract(ed) to lady bugs and spiders and katydids...
(Got distracted by something else...)"

Knowing Micah's amazing memory, he will come back and ask me for the meaning again, or he will just easily incorporate it into his everyday conversations.