You are inquisitive:
You see things and you tell me you see them. Every single thing.

And then you go Right Daddee? Right?

You are like Mummee- independent, and OCD:
You wanna try things yourself, and you wanna do it your way. That is why if whatever you are attempting is being done wrong, we will never get out of there.

You are also sly:
You still pee in your pants; likely from being too lazy to stop whatever fun activity you are doing at the moment to go pee. And when you are caught, you change the subject hoping that your trouble with the adults will go away. Of course it won’t, and so you run away. Literally.

But above all, all these traits are better than you being the opposite of them!

Happy Birthday buddy!

So there was an idea for Caitlin to spend the night at Grandma’s, since it’s so much closer to school and not risk missing the bus- which is departing earlier than when we leave our own home.

So, the previous night, only Caleb came home with us.

I wasn’t the only one feeling somewhat “empty”. 2 Year old Caleb waved goodbye to his jie-jie when we left Grandma’s, yet kept asking “Where jie-jie? Where?” most of the night. Our usual routine at that time of day is for them to chill out, usually with Playhouse Disney on the tube, and they are either or all of lying on the beanbag watching, or making small projects with the scrap paper we collect (colouring, making makeshift toys like wands, pretend-anything), or having their last milkies for the day.

Caleb pretty much had to do most of these alone. In fact he was almost subdued on this night, only mainly watching the tube from the beanbag.

He obviously takes the lead from jie-jie, which obviously leads to other behavioural “problems” when jie-jie hasn’t exactly been good! More to come on this!

Since jie-jie already has a pair, now I have one too!

ROCK ON, DUDE!

Caleb turned 2 this January. But this post isn’t about him.

Last night I smacked Caitlin- the grab-her-arm-so-she-can’t-run-away smack; the night before Hot Mummee smacked her too.

I have had long car-ride talks with her about being the big sister to Caleb- she snatches from him, does dangerous leaps; how he looks up to her and mimics her not knowing right from wrong yet; and so, telling her that what he does is generally her fault (on this I had clearly highlighted both the good things he mimics as well as the bad things).

But last night she was just plainly defying me.

Hot Mummee says I have always been too lenient: I believe in a couple of warnings first. Last night she was pounding an inverted empty raisin tin like a drum with some of her colour pencils, her brother copying her. After repeated and increasingly stern pleas and warnings to stop “Because it’s noisy and you will break the pencils inside..”, she still went on with it. I took it away. She went to get it back. I took it away again out of reach.

Then she started playing with her plastic childrens-table, turning it upside down and crawling under it pretending to be a tunnel, her brother copying her, when he has already cleaned up in pj’s ready for bed. Pleas turned into warnings, not heeded again.

“I said no!”

” I said yes!”

I flipped: CHASED and grabbed her arm and whipped-smacked the back of her thigh.

She bawled. It stung my fingers for a while, which I am sure was the same on her fleshy thigh. I didn’t regret it. Repeated warnings warranted it.

“Don’t you talk back to me!” and reminded her about the earlier two let-go’s before I flipped.

And here’s the potential tear jerker:
Why are you more happy with di-di (younger brother) than with me??

Fine tight rope act and speech required here.

After insisting that she calmed down, I explained; as had Hot Mummee the night before. “We love you both the same, but you just plainly do not listen!“, “.. he listens to us..”, “..but he copies what you do, especially the bad things..”, “.. at 2 he is already very polite..” etc.

Sigh.

She is a smart kid. Quite bright, observant (that’s obvious from above), and at present somewhat requiring lots of guidance. We work fulltime, Grandma can only do so much. She is still okay with her studies, but it is this kinda in-discipline that is preventing her to start being able to read, at 5-turning-6 age.

Luckily for everyone, Caleb actually likes to push from behind. But it won’t be long though, before he’d be wanting to ride.

Yes, they were still in their jammies. It’s Sunday okay- give us parents a break!

Evening came and it was time to get ready for bed.

Caleb can express his hunger quite audibly / comprehensibly now, by telling us “nan-nan”.

As you can see he’s quite comfortable on the beanbag. Quite a relief for all of us, since we don’t always have to be watching him when he feeds now.

Caitlin, on the other hand, was being rather cheeky about bedtime. Calls to her to go clean her teeth went unanswered.

We found her like this.

Now that’s one way of getting out of doing something. I gotta try that with Hot Mummee one day….

Caitlin, in general is sweet to her younger brother Caleb. Since she was able to walk, she’d been fascinated by other humans her size. So, I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that she is so, to her little brother.

However, having been the only child for her first 3 years, the first grandchild at HM’s family side (Caitlin makes the 14th grandchild on my side!) I dare say she is kinda “spoiled” in that she’d be used to being the sole attention-getter.

For myself, I have made a conscious effort to be conscious of how she may feel when this happens. Especially when relatives are “re-living” having a rugrat and who’s just learned how to walk, Caleb has been getting all the attention of “How cute!”, “Look how he likes to walk in circles / spins / tiny stamping feet..”, Caitlin has been “relegated” to be the second favourite.

Touchwood- so far she doesn’t seem to be showing any ill feelings towards her brother as a result. The only hint of jealousy that I can readily observe, is when either is holding onto a toy and the other will want it (yes, only when the other has it!), or when one is embracing Grandma, the other wants to rush over for the same… the same doesn’t seem to apply to Daddee though! Caitlin embraces Daddee and Caleb is like “Ho hum ah well now what was I doing again?”

When this happens, I try my best that the other also gets the “equal opportunity”; either by embracing both, getting them to share, or even a simple look over to Caitlin offering her a reassuring smile. She usually reciprocates with one too, which is always heart-warming for Daddee. One thing I gotta do reverse too, is that in the mornings and evenings Caitlin rides with me in the front, with Caleb in the baby seat in the back with the helper. I spend most if not all of that time chatting with Caitlin on just about anything, whilst Caleb is kinda left on his own ogling at the window to the world zooming past.

One thing that I am a little impatient waiting for, is for Caleb to soon understand and speak more for us to also rationalise with him, so that Caitlin is not always the one having to give in; which she does now “because he doesn’t understand; and you’re the jie-jie..”

But that of course also means that Caitlin will no longer be the 4 year old that she is now, and that Caleb would have outgrown his current Royal Cuteness…. sigh.

How was your experience with growing up with a sibling, either as a younger and/or older one? How did your parents manage your different characters?

Call it chicken, call it because-my-hair-is-thinning. It’s because the shape of my head will only make me look (more) silly.

But my son sports it well- the second time proves it wasn’t a fluke

Sigh… Yes- That is drool on his chin…

buh-bye;

Grr-grr- “go-go” is what is uttered whenever we are ready to go out. Now he’s the one telling us we should go out.

Ma’am-mee (nope, still not calling Daddee);

circa and dar (“circle” and “star”, when Daddee was doodling with him);

tonne-ner whenever we enter a tunnel, or even under overhead bridges that remotely resemble anything undercover;

Runs around in circles of present-moment’s object of desire on the floor- a toy, a piece of paper, etc.

Caitlin:
She was pretty proud that she could rubber-band tie her rolled up doodling (“treasure map”) with a double twirl all by herself.

Caitlin’s cough and sniffles is getting better; thank goodness there’s no fever otherwise I’d be bringing her straight to a doctor, for obvious reasons of what’s in the air these days.

It’s mid afternoon. I think we’ll grr-grr to Midvalley using the tonne-ner parking, since really there’s nothing to do otherwise at home

Now he doesn’t look at me when I tell him off.

He’d sometimes take forever to finish his bottle of milk. 3/4 through and he’d stop, get off the sofa, wanders around for whatever / whoever. He’d look for HM, his jie-jie, or just because. He’d walk to walls and slap it. He’d come over and put his head on your lap and then rubs his face (nose) on it too, hands free.

Sometimes he’d stop the milk with “nn-more” accompanied by the “finished” hand gesture, as if you’d believe that the 3/4 bottle is empty; and proceed to get off the sofa.

Just because he can walk. At 17 months he is walking around, screaming demanding for stuff, stuff his jie-jie has just because she is holding it, screaming because his jie-jien snatches it back, screaming just because he has a voice. He’d also mumble. Sometimes imitating words he’d immediately heard uttered by the adults around him, sometimes it’s his own words that he’d used before, like that dah-den that seems to me to describe anything and everything in his universe.

I’d go over, carry him back to the sofa, sit him down and get down to his eye level, grunting “Finish your naan-naan!”

He’d look past me. At the tv behind me, at the wall behind me, at the shelf behind me. Just not at me. He’d move his head slightly, but it’s usually just the use of his eyes, no need wasting energy moving the head. No, don’t make eye-contact with Daddee, let’s drive him crazy a bit more. Ignore the bugger.

* Now I know what my mum went through, getting me to sit down and finish whatever it was I was supposed to do! And Caleb is not even 2 yet!

I was gonna say “It has begun”.. but you know it had already begun even before he turned 1! Ugh!

I gotta check the old camera again; I actually think Caitlin took this shot!

Somehow it was always only me on it, usually falling asleep on it watching the Discovery channel ALONE; finding out that it’s not really all that healthy for my lower back either. Even when Hot Mummee and I were dating, the double seater was never “used”. She always thought it was dirty, I guess ‘cos it was always on the floor and never really been cleaned. Heck she’d even tell me off about that when I do lie on it.

Never had two persons on it, until recently.

Tonight, the kids were on it again. Rolling, climbing, jumping and plopping themselves on it. Tonight however, was a little different: Either one of them had moved her/his head, and their heads connected- I think Caitlin got a bump somewhere on her face.

She starts crying (which usually means it must’ve been quite painful ‘cos she doesn’t cry much). Caleb sees her jie jie crying, he starts crying too!

HM goes and comforts Caitlin, since Caleb was just “reacting”. I think HM kinda tickled Caitlin, because Caitlin starts to smile, and starts giggling and laughing.

Yup, Caleb starts to laugh too!

It’s actually quite a funny/interesting “connection”. I would like to think that Caleb starts to cry simply because he hears another child in distress. But when Caitlin (then) starts to laugh, that he too starts laughing must also mean that the “contagiousness” of this works on both sad and happy too!

Not that I am complaining, just interesting. Also good that the two are indeed playing with one another. Just hope this keeps up, but that the snatching will stop soon- that Caleb starts understanding more and starts talking, so that we can be less one-sided than we are now with Caitlin having to give in 99% of the time “because he doesn’t understand yet….”

Funnily, Hot Mummee hasn’t really said anything about it being “dirty” for the kids. She’s always let them lie and roll around on it.

I think she knew my intention with the beanbag during those dating days. Darn it.

The flight from Melbourne arrived KL at 5am local time; I booked the overnight one to save a day(light) for when we arrived, but didn’t realise till later that it actually arrived that early.

But in any case, we did “gain” a full day despite my suffering a massive headache due to lack of sleep and/or dehydration.

But it’s good to be back. The daughter was very pleased to see us, and had many catch-up stories to share.

But seeing the son was a more significant event. It seems he has picked up some new skills of “standing up” on his knees, arms up like a “Yay” stance, just because! And much to our dismay he’s also a lot more cry-baby when he is not picked up / carried!

Today (Monday) was (also, just like in Australia) a public holiday. We spent a lot of time with the kids, and it was during this time that these antics of his were evident. It’s funny, when it was just Hot Mummee, Caitlin and I around, he’d whimper at first but soon dies down with only a very inquisitive what-the-heck-are-you-adults-doing look on his face. But as soon as our helper turns up, he starts whimpering “needing” her to pick him up.

So it’s no surprise who’s been spoiling my son.

We will need to break him of this habit; managed so with Caitlin that even though she asks to be carried sometimes, at least she accepts quite readily that we cannot anymore; only when we visit my brother’s house that I do still carry her- they have 2 dogs and one of them is a (albeit friendly) doberman!

More “bad” news is that Caleb has also gotten back into the habit of waking up at nights! Since his flu is over, he’s a lot more alert now!

ARGH!

Caitlin walks in, and asked what the heck I was doing.

I decided to be honest.

“Daddee’s looking at the lines on my body**”.

“Lines? What lines?”

“These lines” point at the curved lines beneath what used to be spectacular pecs*. “Daddee’s getting fat.”

Now she is telling people she doesn’t wanna eat so much because she doesn’t wanna get fat- “Otherwise I will get lines on my body like Daddee…”

Yeah thanks kiddo.

* Okay I exaggerate.

** The lines look like bra-underwire marks on my body now- this, I am not exaggerating. I will spare you the photos lest you cannot look at me in the face the next time we meet…. or vice versa.

It’s a combo of gravity, fat, and the lack of youth.

I am in trouble now….

Is it that, afterwards, while suppressing your urge to laugh at His Royal Cuteness, that you grunt at him to get back to concentrate (as much as a 10 month old boy can muster) on drinking thru his teat, only to have him do the whole flash-my-5-teeth-at-you all over again?

Or is it that, occasionally while carrying him, he’d make a hmm sound, and then you make a hmm sound too, and then he makes a hmm sound back at you, and then you make a hmm sound, and then he makes a hmm sound too?

Or is it that, in the wee hours of the night, when you sneak into bed the most quietest you can be, and he wakes, and you grumble and swear under your breath and pat his back to get him to go back to sleep, only to see, in the littlest of available light, the little bugger is grinning back at you?

Or is it that, when a lady is carrying him, he would, index finger only, hook the top of the carrier’s blouse, tug-pull a little, and peer in to check out her boobs?