It's Only Getting More Difficult

Kids are harder to manage when they grow older. When they were young, parents keep track on their first word, when the kids can make 2-3 words sentence and all the what not milestones. And now, parents wish they kids talk a bit less.
This is why I said so...

Lucas: What are we having for dinner?
Me: We are having rice and soup for dinner.
Lucas: But I already had rice for lunch. I don't want rice again.
Me: What do you want for dinner then?
Lucas: Sandwich.
Me: Well, too late. I've already cooked dinner. Maybe we can have sandwich for tomorrow's dinner.
Lucas: No, I want sandwich for today's dinner.
Me: No.
Lucas: I can make my own sandwich, you know.

Throwing a fuss at the maid...
Lucas: Aunty M, why did you always cook rice?
Maid: Your Mommy asked me to cook rice.
Lucas: Next time, don't listen to her!

Lucas: Mom, why pork ball? I like fish ball.
Me: (Went to get fish ball and cook for his dinner)
Lucas: Mom, but I don't want fish ball today.
Me: (sigh)

Me: We have noodles for dinner tonight.
Lucas: I don't want noodles. I want macaroni.
Me: (holding my patience)

He has been getting very bad and short temper. Warned him many times and still not listening. I have given up spanking him. It does not work. Instead, I punish him by taking his favourites away like no TV, no iPad (has given him the iPad again but with password protection) and no ice-cream. He is so used to the punishment that he is not bothered now. Punish him with no TV for the whole day, he does not even bother pestering or anything like that. He said, 'Yes, I remember the punishment'. Wah...he is so immune to the punishment. Need to get creative..

Violence, Obscene and Kids

How often I read about controlling children watching porns, violence and I could not relate to it. Now, I have a taste of it......

Lucas used to love to watch Disney Playhouse channel which is about all the kiddy education shows. I have no objection at all. Then, when he turned 4, he outgrown that channel. He started on more adult channel like Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network. I did not object initially, thinking that he is getting too old for Mickey Mouse Playhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einstein. Little did I know that these so called children channels, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, need adult supervision. There are so many fighting shows, sadists story. I now have to lock the channel to reduce his airtime. I only unlock the channel for very specific shows like Ben 10 (Lucas latest craze) and Tom and Jerry.

Then the obscene or porn came in YouTube on iPad.... sigh. Both the kids like to watch short video on YouTube. Chloe likes the ABC songs and Elmo. Lucas used to like Tom and Jerry on iPad YouTube. Recently, Lucas made major discovery!! Some of these innocent looking kiddy videos have obscene scenes at the end. One of the ABC songs has phrases of f word. One of the Ben 10 video has scene of very obscene clips - even too obscene for adults! When I discovered that, I get Dominic to delete the YouTube from the iPad. He tried and could not figure out how. We goggle the forum and still could not find a way to do so. So, what are we doing now?? We HIDE the iPad.

Why on earth the producers / creators of these children videos do it? Are they sick or what?? And when the kids grow older and with the internet, how do parents monitor them? Oh...my hair is growing white.

Ms Bossy

Chloe is another chatter-box in the making. I can imagine this house is going to be very 'merry' as they grow older. Some of the conversation Chloe had.

Lucas: (jumping all over the chair)
Me: Lucas, stop it!
Lucas: (keep jumping)
Me: Lucas, you better stop it before I punish you.
Chloe: Go to the bathroom.
Lucas: (screaming)
Chloe: Bad temper!

Arr..now you know how I talk to my kids and what kind of punishment I give them.

Chloe: (giving water tumbler to Lucas) Ko-ko, drink your water.
Lucas: (took a sip)
Chloe: Small sip only, ok.
Chloe: (after a while), Enou-gh.

Chloe: (Pointing at her hair clip on my hair) That's Chloe hair clip.
Me: Chloe is not wearing it, so Mommy wears it.
Chloe: Sooooo cute.

Left-Handed ?

I'm beginning to think Chloe is going to be a left-handed. I just realised she hardly use her right hand when she feeds herself or when she holds the pencils. I've only really notice when once I placed her spoon on her right side. She placed it to her left side, and then feed herself using left hand. I was shocked. From there on, I have began to pay more attention and hadn't see her use her right hand much.

When Lucas was at her age, he alternated between left and right. We then thought he was not decided if he wants to be a leftie or rightie. Now, he is definitely a rightie.

Left....

Left again...

Weird or Think Out-of-the-Box?

During my last meeting with Lucas's teacher on his progress, the teacher said Lucas think out-of-the-box. She cited an example where the class was doing some artwork and they have to imagine what they are building. Most kids will say like 'I'm building a supermarket', 'I'm building a playground', all the common places/names. The smart aleck Lucas told his teacher he is building '2U', an imaginary name after a popular shopping center, 1U. The teacher was impressed. I was not very convinced.

Then 2 days ago, his classmate cum neighbour was sick and had to be hospitalised. I told Lucas to do a get well soon card for his friend. I gave him a piece of A4 orange color paper. I told him to use some color pencils to draw and write something. He asked for pencil. Then he told me 'This is my card. I can do anything I want'. He basically asked me not to boss him around. I left him alone. So, when he was done with the card, he showed me. Guess what did he write on the card???
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
getwellsoon.com

That's all he wrote!

When I asked him why .com, he said 'I just want to do something silly'.
Is he weird or as his teacher said think out-of-the-box??

It's So Darn Hot

Last few days have been soooo hot. The temperature inside the house is 33 degree Celsius. Wonder what is outside??!! What do you do when it is soooo hot? Watch TV and read inside air-condition room. We can't get out of the house to go to the playground until it is 6.30pm (and it is still hot). Then in less than 40 mins, the sky gets dark. At night, the air-cond have to be switched on till morning. I don't need to be in the Middle Eastern countries to experience summer there. I have it right here. Time to emigrate?

I wonder what is better now, too much heat or too much cold?

The God

One fine day, Lucas asked, 'What is God?'. The parents, being non-religious at all were struggling to give him a true but not so complicated answer.

Lucas: Mommy, what is God?
Me: (think for a few seconds) Nobody has seen God (true??). God is invisible, but God can see and hear everything you do and say.
Dom: Yes, Lucas, God may be just around us looking and listening to us now.

A few days later,

Lucas: Mommy, did you see my Dinosaur card?
Me: No, where did you put it last?
Lucas: Here, but it is not here anymore.
Me: Maybe you took it downstairs and you don't remembered.
Lucas: Maybe God took it. God is invisible.

Today, I found out that my first maid has scribbled some notes on the wall. It has the date she arrived. I was talking to my new maid.
Me: M, who wrote this?
M: Not me, it was already here.
Me: (Look closer to see what was written) See if you can clean the writing.
Lucas: Maybe God wrote it. God is invisible.

Best Hiding Place in the House

My kids like to hide behind my bedroom curtain. Don't ask why. I suppose the thrill of walking along the window and know that nobody can see you, and then the few blind-fold seconds as they try to expose themselves.

Lucas hiding behind the curtain when he was 2+ year old.


Chloe hiding behind the same curtain recently.

Easter

This year Easter was fuss free. We had an egg-hunt for the kids at home on Saturday, and on Sunday, we took the kids to the grandparent's place for another egg-hunt and brunch.

Waiting for the parents to get ready for egg-hunt.


Egg-hunting.

Enjoying their 'hunted' goodies. They like to sit at the bottom stair when snacking.