Ben 10 Groupie

If they see this, they are SO gonna kill me when they are older...

Major Ben 10 Alien Force groupie:-

Not to be outdone, Di-Di following closely behind...
Well, who ask them NOT to listen to ME when I ask them to....
...eat..don't play with the food...don't chew & talk!
...go take bath NOW!
...go sleep NOW!
...don't run, don't play at the escalator.
...switch off the tv & get into the car NOW!
...wear your seatbelt.
...don't switch channel, mommy want to watch American Idol!

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! (Evil laugh)

My Baby is 3.5 Today

MY BABY IS 3.5 TODAY!!!!!

Seems like only yesterday when he was 'poked' out. Ya, he was induced about 4 days before his due date, because the next few days would be public holidays (got double charges mah...) and moreover, mommy's gynea was going on leave, hahahahaha!

Di-Di is an easy baby (to take care of) and fast learner. As I said before, survival instinct. Once I took him along to buy some products at my facial shop, he kissed every ladies that asked him to - the receptionist, the beauticians, the consultants. And even a man customer!

Di-Di is very agile. As I'm used to it, I'm no longer faint-hearted, unlike his grandparents. Thank god they didn't witness one incident about 2 weeks ago, when he climbed up a 8-feet pole of the monkey bar, hanged there for 10 seconds and climbed down again. All by himself! The aunties at the playground clapped their hands.

He can also hold his head under water for about 10 seconds...

However, when it comes to 'cheng keng' (practical/useful) stuff, he is a bit lazy...like practising his writing. Or picking up after himself. Or walking. Or wee-wee into the toilet bowl!

Before each writing practice session, there are sure to be a lot of negotiations involved, like he wants to play with my cell phone's games or his Kor-Kor's Transformer computer game or the Yahoo Free Games or look at the photos saved on the laptop. After several 'practice' sessions, he can now slowly maneuver & click on the mouse. Then, after further coercion & bribing, practise write 2 lines of 'cheng keng' stuff.

Di-Di is very independent. At times I would ask him, "Do u want me to help you ?". His favorite reply would be, "No, I can do it."

However, when it comes to sleeping by himself, he still refuses. Many a times, when I tell him, mommy's place is on the bed next to Daddy & he is to sleep with himself on the mattress next to the bed, he would show his most pathetic face & say, "Mommy, u sleep here [point to his mattress]. Daddy smelly!"

Sigh! I miss his baby smell. Here is Di-Di when he was 10.5 months - lil monster in the making. Kindly ignore the mommy irritating ra-ra...

Baby No More

Last night, before I tucked him to sleep, Kor-Kor suddenly blurted out.

"Mommy, today I 'nguk-nguk' (pass motion) at school."

I sucked in breath, shocked, "HOW? HOW??"

BECAUSE MY BOY STILL DON'T KNOW HOW TO WIPE HIS ASS!!!

"I got no tissue, the toilet also no tissue, so I had to borrow from my friend la."

I still cringing, "U know how to wipe meh?"

"Dunno"

Still cringing, "Then how? When u wipe, yr hands got 'nguk-nguk" or not?"

"GOT!!!!"

"EEEEEWWWWW!!!!" We all laughed, even Di-Di.

I looked at his hands and asked, "Did u wash your hands?"

"Yes."

"Did you wash your hands with soap?"

"Mommy, the school got NO SOAP laaaaaa......"

"EEEEEWWWW!!!!" We all laughed again.

I checked his fingernails, remembering something, and asked, "How you tell your teacher you want to go 'nguk-nguk'?"

"I asked teacher 'may I go toilet la?'". Thank god he's not so blur, at least he didn't say 'I wanna go 'nguk-nguk'!!!

"But, the teacher laughed cos I got no tissue!"

We laughed, but I thot to myself, sucks, I've been such a bad mother.

Still use baby talk ie for passing motion, urine, shower, etc....

Didn't at least give him a packet of tissue for emergency. Only handkerchief to wipe mouth & hands.

Never teach him how to wipe or wash his ass after passing motion. Because he always go in the morning before school is no excuse, rite ?

But, really!!!

Can someone please show & tell????

How to teach your kid how to wipe/wash his ass after 'nguk-nguk'? (Cos now I panic, panic!!!)

Obsession

Errr...no, not the perfume.

This is the latest 'in the house' obsession.

Mommy & Daddy's:
This is normally NOT mommy's cup of tea (as she would normally go for shows with lotsa love-love & kissy-kissy (romance la.. don't think too far off ya, ala Korean/HK minus the tears or 'ham fu ham fatt' as they say in Cantonese) scenes, but that Wenworth Miller as Micheal Scofield sure is a hottie. What a good way to lose sleep over....

So far Mommy is still recovering from Season 1 & 2!!!!

Kor-Kor & Di-Di's:

Yeh! Mommy's off the hook. Why didn't mommy buy a new bicycle to Di-Di way earlier, but tried to 'fleece' Kor-Kor old bike to Di-Di ? Kor-Kor's old bike (redemption from Daddy's credit card) had died its natural death long-long time ago, but still Mommy didn't want to accept it (tried to change the training wheels, seat, wheel chains, etc).
Poor Di-Di. Second child syndrome - always get hand-me-downs. Poor Di-Di again. Mommy too cheapskate. Bought his bicycle from pasar malam (night market). The bike with uneven training wheels. Thot that it should be ok, cos Kor-Kor's bike also like that. Regret big time. What a lousy way to spend 90 bucks!

But then again, that's how Kor-Kor learn to ride without training wheels so fast!

Eat Drink Patong Beach

There are quite a number of kiddy attractions in Phuket, few of which like the Zoo, Butterfly Garden, Aquarium, Waterfall, Fantasea (cultural theme park), elephant trekking, island hopping, etc.

But besides elephant tracking, we did not move our butts out of Patong Beach. The hotel that we stayed, Holiday Inn, was very convenient for beach-buming. Just need to cross 1 street to the famous Patong beach. The hotel even has a guard who would assist to slow down the traffic, so that the hotel guests can cross without too much hassle. Holiday Inn is normally quite expensive, about RM500/night for a room that can fit a small family with young kids. But if book during their Great Asia Sale, the rooms is going at RM290 onwards! (I think economy not good, hotels also got sale. We booked during their 24-27 Feb sale & I saw that the hotel group recently held another one on 14-17 Apr.) But if don't like the hustle & bustle of being right smack in town, can always go to compare hotel rate, which for me, is better than most search engines because the hotel prices are quoted in our local currency & there are plenty of hotels listed, with rates comparison from multiple online merchants.

Patong Beach is relatively quiet when we were there in March. Supposedly to be low season. But still got plenty to 'sai ngan' (wash your eyes), as 99% of the female species there, from age 3 to 75, are clad in bikini! (Trust me, you would also be interested to look, if you are as self-concious as me & wandering 'why are they not'!! lol)

Though it's a busy beach, it's much cleaner & the sand is much softer than Penang's. Somewhat better than parts of Langkawi, in fact. One thing to heed is don't plonk yr stuff down at the sun chairs, because it's 200Baht for the use, which is not actually expensive if you are into some serious sun soaking (which we are seriously not, going by the amount of sun block I slapped on the boys & myself).

Food & drinks - plenty along the road parallel to the beach & along the off-roads too. If the craving is for authentic local fare, try the off-roads. But with my 3 very 'yim chim fan thong' (picky rice eater), of course we didn't, sigh!

Beer & drinks - There's a bar (or 5) at almost every corner, especially Bangla Road. Patong really comes alive at night.

Shopping - they told us that Phuket town have more variety & cheaper. But the taxis want to charge RM80-RM100 both ways, so Daddy told them to 'forgetaboutit', sob, sob! Mommy was able to seek solace in Patong's 2 small Ocean departmental stores, and its new Jungceylon shopping complex which houses Robinsons (wink!). Actually, I didn't have much to buy, except underwear, ha, ha, which is cheaper in Thailand (& on top of that, Triumph & Wacoal were having upto 30% sale).

And these Glico products:-
Glico Porky is going about RM2.90 here, but in Thailand, RM1.50 equivalent. The boys love it. Glico Thailand also have a lot of variety not carried in Malaysia too (or at least, I cannot find), one of which is the the yellow-color packaged LARB flavor which I absolutely love, love, love (Kor-Kor love too though it's a bit spicy). I think I bought more than 20 Glicos & would have sweep all off the shelves, if not for Daddy giving me the look!

Overall, it was great fun. The boys, as usual, cannot get enough of the pool & beach. Here they are living the high life:-

Horror Stories

About a week back, Kor-Kor showed me a notice from his primary school informing parents that there were a number of incidence where parents received calls that their child has been kidnapped and a ransom is to be paid for the release. The notice reminded parents to check with the school first, to confirm whether their child is still in the compound, before making any move. Most times the child is still at school & those sickos are hoping the ransom will be paid before the child is back from school.

Also about a week back, a neighbour's house 3 doors down was broken into. Four nites ago, a new Honda Accord (of a neighbour's at the opp. road 5 doors away), gated in by stainless steel auto gate, was driven off in the middle of the nite. Three nites ago, this family's neighbour (meaning 6 doors away from us) was robbed of his notebook right in front of his house. What was so sickening was that they swing an AXE to his wrist when he tried to hold on to his notebook. Not satisfied, those sickos pushed him down to the ground and gave him 5 other 'souvenirs' on his back with parangs. That neighbour is about 60 years old!!!!

Scary, isn't?

About 2 months ago, Kor-Kor walked back from school BY HIMSELF after his basketball practice (though I already told him under no circumstances, he is to walk out of the school gate) because mommy was late to fetch him (as I thought he would want to continue to play with his friends like he normally does). He didn't get hurt, but...

Our house is only about 5-minute walk away from his school (3 with longer strides). To reach home, he would have to cross 2 roads, one of which is serviced by an overhead bridge and the other is a busy residential road. Let's see what COULD have happened. He could have:

fell down the monsoon drain near the overhead bridge.

slipped & fell down the overhead bridge which is quite steep.

knocked down by a vehicle.

kidnapped for ransom!

taken away by sickos who like boys, if u know what I mean.

etc...

And what did happened was that he got an earful from me and was punished to stand in the corner for half hour. Until I was very sure he understood the severity of his actions.

The funny thing is that 30 years he would have been praised for being so clever. Heck, if my school is so near, my parents would have me walk to school once they are relatively satisfied that I no longer blur-blur at crossing roads. Heck, I would think most children worth their salt walked to their neighbourhood school then. Or take the bicycle.

Between then & now, what had happened ? Why now we are so afraid ?

Elephant Rides, Phuket

As both their daddy & mommy were busy working end of last year, the boys got their 'flying' holiday only recently during the 1st semester mid-break. Though Daddy was not crazy about another beach holiday, he was not adverse to Patong, Phuket given its reputation as a 'happening' place!

We lazed at Patong for the 4D/3N, except this one time when we took the boys for an elephant ride.

We wanted to take a tut-tut, as the boys thought it was cool, but accidentally took a taxi instead (Lesson no.1: Never assume that the new shiny tut-tut that the driver is standing next to is his. Cos our driver led us to his parked vehicle a couple of meters away, sigh!).

About 10 minutes later, we came to this place just out of Patong (on the way to Karon Beach). The boys were really excited, which made Daddy & Mommy excited too...until they showed us the price tag. For a half hour ride up a small hill, 800Baht for an adult & 400Baht per kid!!! Double if it's an hour ride right up to the top of the hill, with scenic view overlooking the sea.

What!!! That would be equivalent to RM240 for the 4 of us!!! (Lesson no. 2: Always enquire/research beforehand the cost, never assume that inflation has not caught up with the elephants. Or whichever animals u are thinking of riding.)

But since we were there, we had to have a go, rite ? Cannot disappoint the boys, rite ? So with mommy doing the talking & daddy taking on the 'bad guy' role & trying to walk away, we managed to get some good discounts. (Wink!)

So, up the elephants we went. They took us half way up the hill cos we only took the half hour package, which comes with glimpses of that scenic view overlooking the sea. But that's ok, cos it's not important to the boys anyway. Why would they, when they can enjoy this 'scenic' view. The elephant was peeing. It was like someone turned on the hose full blast for 60 seconds or so...

Before we turned back, the elephants handlers asked whether we wanted to take a photo. I thought that was real nice of him till he asked for 100Baht.

What!!! 100Baht just to take a photo of us with OUR OWN CAMERA!!! I wanted to ask him whether we look like 'sui yee' (guileless tourist who thinks everything is so, so cute!!!), but thot better to zip up my mouth. From ahem... the look on his face. (Lesson no. 3: Always ask "How much?")

Going downhill was tougher. Felt like we were slipping off, so needed to hang on tighter to the seats. While we were hanging on to our dear life (exaggerated), Di-Di suddenly dozed off. Thank god, Daddy's reflexes were quicker or Di-Di would have crashed landed. Kor-Kor & I had a good laugh at the way he was swaying precariously. That baby of mine can really sleep..if he wanted to.

After the 'adventure', our taxi driver recommended lunch at Kan Eang Restaurant at Chalong Bay, about 20 minutes away. He told us it's 'good-good, locals like' (We later found out that it's high on the list of most tuk-tuks or taxis to take tourists. So not so local after all). But the restaurant is beside the beach, so scenery & ambiance was great. Food so-so, or may be we didn't know how to order. But then, how to be really adventurous with 2 kids in tow.

While Daddy was picking up the tab, the boys had a chance to 'khau loi' (pick up girls)! Just kidding...they were watching Ben 10 in Thai.

HUH???!!!

At times I don't really know what my lil' monsters are talking about. This morning for example:

Kor-Kor (in very serious tone): "Mommy, my friend said ah, in many, many, many, many, many days, thieves are coming to our earth. Then ah, we must run very, very, very, very fast. You cannot fall down one. Must go hide. The thieves are coming to kill us."

Mommy: "Huh??? Errr.....which movie was he watching??? Go ask him ok ?" (so that I would know which movie the friend was referring to, to make sense of this)

Kor-Kor: "No lah, he was not watching any movie. He said the thieves are coming & everybody will DIE!!!"

Mommy: *Speechless*

Gosh! Boys are really violent. That sounds like mankind are really screwed!!!

Toilets and Everything Boys

The thing about having boys is that....I would not be able to watch over them when they are in the men's toilet! You see, Kor-Kor thinks that he's a big boy now & big boys don't GO girls' toilet, ha, ha. So when Kor-Kor is in the men's, Mommy has to stake out right at the doorway (when Daddy's not out with us), trying to pick out any 'out of ordinary' noises. "Of course rite? What with all the stories we have heard about perverts & lil' boys in toilets!!!" Unfortunately, with Mommy lurking suspiciously at the doorway, mommy would attract stares from strange men, who instead thinks that mommy is a peeping Tom/stalker! There was once Di-Di rushed inside as well, and both of them were in there darn long. They were playing water (can hear water splashing & laughter) & would not come out, no matter how loud I screamed @#$^&*. At last, I had to send in a non-pervert looking guy to drag them out.

The thing about having boys is that....they can wee-wee EVERYWHERE, though now that they are older (especially Kor-Kor who is close to 7), it's kinda embarassing. Ok, for this I'll take the blame, cos mommy was too lazy to search for toilets when they were younger & let them wee-wee at the drains, trees, bushes, roadside, etc. Once, when Kor-Kor was 2.5 yrs old, I took him to wee-wee at the bushes while waiting for taxi cos I was too lazy to walk inside to find a toilet. The classic thing about this incident was that we were at.... SINGAPORE AIRPORT! Daddy thought I had gone bonkers, what with S'pore being such a FINE city!!!!

The thing about having boys is that....they sometimes forget to take the toilet seat up! This would normally happen with Di-Di & especially during his middle of nite's small business. And being half asleep, his aiming sucks. So when mommy had the unfortunate privilage of going next, my butt would hit something cold....Arrrggghhh!!!

But no matter how much pee I had to sit on, I would not change these times with them for the world :P

Mead Johnson Should Be Proud

Do you know how much you spent on your child's milk powder ?

I recently took out all the Mead Johnson's Enfa milk tin foils and bar codes that I have saved (or rather my personal assistant a.k.a maid saved for me) for the past 5-6 years!(Never gotten around to redeem gift from Mead Johnson cos mommy's been too lazy busy!)

Mind you, I think some of your children (which are not on mama's milk) could have consumed more. Kor-Kor, for 1, is such a difficult baby. When he was a few months old, and upto about 2 yrs old, I had to hold the milk bottle in one hand & a toy in the other to distract him, just so he would continue to drink some milk. Even with all this hoopla, he would only drink 4 oz! And that's only 8 oz per day- one shot in the morn & one at nite, cos the babysitter had no patience to keep up this clown act.

Di-Di drank more. After I stopped breastfeeding him at 10 months, he has been drinking holes to our pockets.

That would mean approx. 5 Mead Johnson years from Kor-Kor (start at 1, stop on own accord at 6) & approx. 3 Mead-Johnson years from Di-Di (& still going strong). From that, my collection totals 71 tin foils and 166 bar codes.

Assuming each tin foil/bar code cost circa RM50 (though those 1.4kg Enfagrow cost >RM60 now), Daddy & Mommy had spent......

RM11,850*!!!

Why so much ah ? I also don't understand, but I recalculated, really that many tin foils & bar codes wor...(p/s. this can be downpayment for an apartment!!!)

Witch Mountain

Two or three weeks ago, this mommy 'sui tor hau' (the curse of the big mouth) asked Kor-Kor whether he wants to go watch Witch Mountain when the trailer was shown on tv. Kor-Kor jumped to the idea & held mommy to her big mouth's invitation. (Why his memory so good when comes to such things???)

Not that I don't want to take him but just that the 'outing' needs a lot of 'maneuvering'. But today, opportunity cropped up when Kor-Kor's school took a special day off for Cheng Beng a.k.a All Souls Day (which Daddy commented to be really weird but typical for a Chinese school). I told Kor-Kor that I would take him, BUT....ON ONE CONDITION:

He was NOT to mention in front of Di-Di that he is going to see a movie. You see, mommy was not planning to take Di-Di because Di-Di is not emotionally ready (I took Kor-Kor to see his first movie when he was 4++ and that too, he was fidgeting & talking so much I was scarred the patron in the front row might turn back & punch us!!!).

I told Kor-Kor that this is going to be our secret ops. HAH! And we would go when Di-Di is taking his afternoon nap. But being a kid, of course he blabbered. Though, this time around, he was more cunning already & got all my frowns, winks & eye signals to hush up. This is what he told his Di-Di to cover his tracks:

U go to sleep la. Afterwards, I'm going to school, ok ? I'll be back by 7, ok ?

Sucks! I've create a fibbing monster!

When we came back, Di-Di wanted to know where we went. Since I don't have the heart to lie to him, I vaguely replied that we were at 1-Utama 'to do something'. He was nevertheless, VERY upset, cried buckets & scolded mommy for being 'very naughty' never bring him too. I tried to rationalise that I sometimes bring him to Ikea without Kor-Kor & Kor-Kor never cried what. Didn't work. So Plan B - throw in the goody bag, "Let's go to Giant's Playground!"

Waterworks stopped. My punishment was I had to sit & wait around for an hour. There were plenty of kids their age around, so they had so much fun.

So, was Witch Mountain (& that sinful large caramel popcorn) worth it ? No.
Did Kor-Kor enjoyed Witch Mountain ? No.
Did Kor-Kor still talk loudly in the cinema? Yes.
Did anybody punched us yet ? No.
Would Di-Di be emotionally scarred for life? No.

Because mommy asked Di-Di after Giant Playground time "Is mommy still naughty?".

He said no.

Ben 10, Power Rangers, Ultraman And Everything Boys

The thing about having boys is that...I HAVE got to know BY HEART all Ben 10 alien names ie Heat Blast, Four Arms, Diamond Head, Ghost Freak, Grey Matter, Rip Jaws, Stink Fly, Upgrade, Wild Mutt & XLR8. Because sometimes there would be a POP QUIZ! And I have got be familiar enough to spell Aliens such as 'Humongousaur' at the drop of the hat. Like who can remember such a thing.

The thing about having boys is that...I HAVE got to know which Power Rangers series is cooler. And which is their current favourite. And I have got to sit thru the cheesy dialogues, rubbery villains, unrealistic fighting sequence over & over again, enduring not one but several series of Power Rangers like Dino Thunder, Wild Force, Ninja Storm, SPD, Mystic Force, Operation Overdrive & the mother of all Power Rangers - Mighty Morphins.

The thing about having boys is that...I HAVE got to know the differences among all Ultramen. How am I supposed to know that the shape of the Ultramen's mask were different or the design of their suits were different. THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME TO ME. And that Ultraman actually had Daddy, Mommy & the whole 'gin' gang. Do you know that Ultraman is 40 meter tall & is 20,000 Earth years old ? Neither do I. I'd just goggled it! Ha, ha!

The thing about having boys is that...I HAVE to 'refrain' from shopping when I'm out with them. After a couple of times being dragged out (by the waist & legs), accompanied by screams of "NOOOOO, MOMMY!!!!!!! No shopping AGAIN!!!!!", I quickly learnt my lesson. Because people are staring & with the boys' loud "...AGAIN", it looks like they are saving this mommy from a shopaholic relapse!

The thing about having boys is that...I HAVE no opportunity whatsoever to buy cutesy girlie accessories & dresses. And there are so many - hair clips, hair band, ribbons, sling bags, purses, bangles, necklaces, party dresses, casual frocks, mini skirts, tank tops....which would 'pok kai' (bankrupt) a small nation!

The thing about having boys is that...I HAVE no opportunity for games girls' play. No Barbie dolls & doll houses, no pretend tea parties & dressing up...only realistic wrestling matches.

BUT, would I want to change a single thing ? Hell, NO!!!