Kao Kids Archives - Page 31 of 32

Becks Kao Ben Kao Getting all sentimental now Milestones and growing up Nat Kao The Kao Kids

Somebody stop time, please

May 16, 2012

To my precious ones,

You are all growing up too quickly for Mama to handle.

Ben, wasn’t it a while ago you were asking questions furiously? Now you speak like a little man; I miss the cheeky, curious you.

Becks, didn’t you just start walking and talking? Now you rattle non-stop to anyone and everyone, and your two little penguins have become your imaginary friends. I thought I heard you ask them to hold hands and hug each other yesterday. I miss your babblings and high-pitched giggles.

Nat, wasn’t it like yesterday I held you in the delivery room? I just heard you chuckle this morning. You’ve grown from the small helpless baby to one enthusiastic trooper doing mini push-ups every waking moment. I will miss holding the little baby that was you.

Not so soon, darlings, not so soon. I still want to baby all three of you.

With all my love, and more,

Mama

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Going Out!

The grass is greener here at POLW

May 13, 2012

So I’m a little late in posting this. Almost everyone I know with young children have gone to POLW, the new kids’ water theme park at Sentosa.

We figured since Jake and the Neverland Pirates is all the rage now with the kids (they are watching reruns of Season One on Disney Junior every day at 7.30pm), we’d bring them to see a real enough pirate ship – one that spews water and has lots of other jolly buccanneers running around onboard, pretending to be Jake, Izzy and Cubby, just like my kids.

Picture from polw.com.sg

Unfortunately for them, the pirate ship didn’t appeal much. It was honestly, just like many of the other water playgrounds they’ve seen. They did get wet but wanted to abandon ship as early as they could. They didn’t like the foam party either. The activities which could be paid for with the curios they were given (sing: “It’s time to count our GOLD DOUBLOONS! Yyaahhyy!!”) didn’t interest them much too (watering a pot of plants for 30 curios? They do it for free at their grandparents’!). So they found themselves a corner at the little sand pit at Curiosity Island and built sandcastles for their little pirate-selves.

What was great about this outing was that the adults (seven of us!) went in free and had a nice picnic. What was even better was the lawn grass! No red ants (think East Coast Park) and no coarse sand (think any beach in Sentosa); just nice green, albeit artificial, grass to sit on to enjoy the sunshine and laughter from the children at the sandpit nearby.

The nice lawn grass was totally worth the thirty bucks. Because we had all the fun as a family there. And it was cool, soft, and insect-free.

More Details:

Port of Lost Wonder (POLW) at Palawan Beach (opens 10am to 6.30pm daily)
Kids pay $8 on weekdays and $15 on weekends (any kid under 12, but my infant went in free, of course)
Things to bring: swimwear, sunscreen, sand toys, picnic mats (unless you want to pay $13 for one there)
Go early. Once they hit maximum capacity, POLW will deny you entry. We saw many longing faces at the entrance when we left at 1pm. Bet they were all waiting to get wet!

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Milestones and growing up The Kao Kids What to Expect... As a Mother

Shit happens

May 9, 2012

As a mother, you deal with excretions of every kind. You clean up pee, poop and booger. You wipe away sweat, swab off pus from blisters and scrape dirt trapped in nails. You drain off mucus coming from the nose and phlegm from the throat. You see, smell and even feel the vomit belched out with force from an upset stomach, then remove (with the help of lots of Dettol) all its content from body/ clothes/ furniture/ floor. Multiply that by the number of kids and the number of years before they can be trained to perform the above themselves (I’m thinking, by twelve?) and that pretty much sums up the length of time you’ll be spending on this unglamorous side of motherhood.

Except that you may also outsource the ear-cleaning bit to someone else. I have outsourced mine to this wonderful woman also known as the kids’ PD.

I love it when I don’t have to worry about this form of excretion because she does such a good job taking them out whenever we visit.

It’s gross. And it could have been my job.

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Family life as we know it I can't categorise such entries What to Expect... As a Mother

Exodus

May 7, 2012

It’s been an awful day.

First, I woke up at three in the morning because Ben started gagging, coughing and wheezing. Then I woke up again later in the morning to find a nasty virus attacking my throat.

Thanks to the thunderstorm last night, it’s one of those days I wished I could sleep in because the weather was finally *nice and cool* but no, I had to resist the beckoning of the bed because the boy needed the doctor.

To top it off, the neighbors one floor below decided that today shall be the day they will hack all their kitchen and bathroom tiles. Yippee!

So what do you get when a sick child, a zonked-out mother, a father looking forward to enjoying his day off (imagine his disappointment!), another constipated child and a two-month-old infant find themselves in an apartment where they can’t hear one another because the hacking, knocking and drilling downstairs is at least two (bloody) hundred decibels?

Plenty of shouting in the house and a nerve-wrecking helluva morning.

The poor kids were so snappy and cranky and stoned by nap time. But it was still bam bam! bam! bam! bam! – pause (for five minutes) – zvrooooooooooooooom! zvroooooooooooooom! zvroooooooooooooooom! (for the next twenty) – bam! bam! bam! bam! bam! zvrooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom (multiply by infinity).

They drifted off to sleep only to be startled again with the drilling and hacking; and this dozing and waking happened for forever, until we decided we would not lose our sanity this way and that it was too cruel to subject an infant to this that we lugged three crying babies out of the house and headed somewhere where we could find peace. quiet. rest.

We found our haven at IKEA. We never found more comfort in a place that’s not our home and today’s the day. We didn’t even do the pretend-we-are-shopping-for-furniture thing; we just plonked ourselves on the next available bed/ sofa/ couch at IKEA the moment we got there. Talk about respite.

We could have gone to Courts next door too, if not for the super long nap we all took in one of those 55 square meter living space in IKEA. I’m sure the Simmons bed at Courts would be worth-a-plonking.

Note to self: maybe next time when another neighbor decides to renovate.

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Ben Kao Milestones and growing up The darndest kid quotes and antics The Kao Kids What to Expect... As a Mother

Of ‘Whys’ and ‘Buts’

May 3, 2012

When Ben turned two, he started asking why. His whys came fast and furious and it seemed like he wouldn’t really settle for any shoddy answers. We tried our best to encourage that inquisitiveness and not kill his curiosity. I sometimes lost my patience because I felt he asked for the sake of asking (most of the time). Still, I tried my darn best to answer his whys with a smile.

Me: Get ready to go to school!
Ben: Why?
Me: Because when you go to school, you’ll learn new stuff, play with friends and have lots of fun.
Ben: Why? I don’t want to go to school…
Me: I need to work…
Ben: Why?
Me: And there’s no one to take care of you.
Ben: Why do you need to work?

Version 1.0

Me: Because I need to earn money, and with money, we can put food on the table, clothes on your body and toy cars in your pocket.

Ben: Why? I can have more toys now? You have money?

~~~

Fatherkao overheard this exchange once and said this shouldn’t be the values we impart, so the next time he asked (we have this conversation on a daily basis, even now that he is three), I answered with v1.1.

Me: Get ready to go to school!

Ben: Why?

Me: You go to school and learn new stuff, play with friends and have lots of fun.
Ben: Why? I don’t want to go to school.
Me: I need to work and there’s no one to take care of you.
Ben: Why do you need to work?

Enter Version 1.1

Me: Because work is meaningful and our lives would be more fulfilling, and this is how God made us, to find work that is meaningful and be satisfied. At work, we can be the best we can be and use our God-given gifts and talents and…

Ben: (putting on his uniform) Can I bring a toy to school?

~~~

So besides imparting the value of work, explaining why the moon comes out at night and the sun in the morning, why all children need naps, why he needs to eat his food, how sweets destroy his teeth, I’ve pretty much covered all categories of questions he’s ever asked. Lately, he’s stopped asking why (I’m quite glad I get a little breather now that he’s out of the why phase). He’s now using the conjunction, ‘but’, and it’s annoying the hell out of me.

Me: Get ready to go to school!
Ben: But I don’t want…
Me: You need to go to school and learn new stuff, play with friends and have lots of fun.
Ben: But school is not fun.
Me: You mean to say you don’t have fun in school? You said you enjoyed music class and playing with Ryan yesterday.
Ben: But I don’t like my friends. They are not nice.
Me: What do you mean they aren’t nice?
Ben: But they bully me.
Me: Did you tell your teachers?
Ben: Yes, I did. But yesterday you said I don’t need to go to school.
Me: I say that on Saturdays and Sundays.
Ben: But today is Saturday.
Me: No, it’s not. Now get ready for school.
Ben: But I don’t want… (the cycle repeats itself)
Me: (exasperated, and thinking if I should use the ‘I’m your mother, so just listen’ option) Here we go again…

~~~

I’m waiting for the other coordinating conjunctions to appear in our conversations, like so, yet, and nor. I can so imagine what this boy would say:

I’m very tired, Mama, so I am going back to bed…

I don’t want to go, yet I have to…

I don’t want to wake up, nor do I want to go to school…

Kids, they sure learn grammar fast!

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I ♥ lists Parenting 101

Top Ten Things You Absolutely Must Have If You Have Two Tods & One Infant

April 30, 2012

Here’s a list for the uninitiated:

10. Waterproof mattress protectors – you need them to line the mattresses for diaper leaks, milk spills, drool and in case your kid does the Merlion

9. Lots of spare kitchen utensils (ladles, spoons, whisks, tongs) tucked in every possible drawer and cabinet in the kitchen. It will be the most explored place in the house. Just keep all knives and scissors away. Don’t bother buying toys.

8. A ready and steady supply of all forms of cleaning agent (think Cif, Mr Muscle, Magic Kleen)

7. Contacts for cheap diapers and milk powder (check out forums and network with moms)

6. The number to your pediatrician’s emergency answering service so you can call him at one in the morning instead of rushing down to the A&E (unless there’s mortal danger, of course)

5. Google is your best friend

4. BabyCenter and Dr Sears are your next BFFs

3. A babysitter named Disney Junior

2. A maid of the Burmese kind (to do the three bagfuls of laundry daily; four if you don’t have waterproof sheet protectors – see #10, vacuum the soles of your shoes and be at your beck and call for diaper emergencies and Merlion experiences )

1. Buckets of salt to take with whenever anyone dishes out advice. Well-meaning or not, only you can figure out how to survive this leg of motherhood.

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Milestones and growing up The darndest kid quotes and antics

Little Miss B

April 30, 2012

Just like that, overnight, my darling Becks has acquired the amazing ability to speak in complete sentences. Where once upon a time she was just saying two-word phrases (I want, don’t want, berries, poo-poo), she can now bark orders complete with the signature close-eyes-for-two-seconds-to-tell-you-I-mean-business look.

Crayons and sharing

Becks: I want to draw

Ben: I also want to draw (proceeds to take crayons)

Becks: (snatches crayons from Ben) Mei mei want to draw!

Me: (Ben whining in the background) Hey, hey, hey, share the crayons, please.

Ben: Mei mei share with me…

Becks: (still holding the crayons) No, kor kor SHARE! (runs away with crayons)

~~~

Don’t do that again

Becks: (having just spilt soup on the coffee table while prancing around) You don’t do that!

Me: Aunty cleans up the mess. She should tell you ‘don’t do that’…

Becks: Aunty, DON’T DO THAT AGAIN! Mei mei angry!

~~~

Unfinished business

Me: (Becks walks in while I’m expressing milk) Yes?

Becks: Mama, what are you doing?

Me: Expressing milk for di di

Becks: Are you done??

~~~

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Becks Kao Ben Kao Milestones and growing up The Kao Kids

Someone to share childhood memories with

April 28, 2012

Ben and Becks are 17 months apart in terms of age gap. That’s like knowing each other forever. From the time he became aware of himself and his emotions, he’s already had a sister. And Becks has never lived a day without her brother. They’ve shared many wonderful memories together and I hope they will always be the best of friends.

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Becks Kao Milestones and growing up The Kao Kids

You don’t have to say you love me

April 26, 2012

Because I know you do. Even when..

1. you say you don’t want Mama

2. you say you want Dada when Mama is just right next to you and smothering you (with kisses)

3. you refuse to kiss me

4. you refuse to say sorry

5. you look away when I talk to you

6. you put the food you’re supposed to share with me in your mouth and run away

I love you, precious, and I always will.

Becks at Day 20

Becks at eight months

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Becks Kao Ben Kao Family life as we know it Invites & Tryouts Milestones and growing up The Kao Kids

Don’t worry Mama, we still love each other

April 26, 2012

My kids have started to fight. I don’t know when it started but I guess it’s inevitable because feisty-with-fearsome-temper Becks is growing up. But after all that snitching and snatching (we never really interfered till we see blood because, well, sibling rivalry, it’s part and parcel of life), they always kissed and made up and told each other they were sorry and still love each other.

Still, I’m missing this – what they used to do when they were a little younger: