New Best Friends

Since becoming a parent, I've made some new friends. Actually, they've always been there for me, but having little children in the home has made me closer to them.

New Best Friend #1: UHU Glue

It's amazing how much damage little fingers can cause. I've lost count how many items I've had to glue back together. The latest one was this big porcelain vase with plastic flowers in them which Adik very sneekily pulled down with one hand. Just like that, it toppled over and suddenly one big vase became many pieces of vase.

(I know, I know, what's a big porcelain vase doing in a house with rambunctious boys? Beats me.)

New Best Friend #2: Sellotape

When Abang was much younger, I was too. And I was also more kiasu. I'd buy him all these children's books and read them to him and try to get him to sit down and point out the words. Unfortunately, he was more interested in pulling the words out to him. Rip! Rip! Rip!

So I spent many hours repairing his books using sellotape or masking tape, depending on the severity of the tear. One child and years of wisdom later, I have learnt to buy thick board books that don't rip as easily.

But somehow, Adik still manages to tear even the thick board books! See this picture, this nice peaceful picture of 2 boys sitting quietly minding their own business. Don't be fooled. What you don't see, is adik surreptitiously ripping apart one of his books.


As for Abang, well, he's very studiously drawing a masterpiece on the floor. See next Best Friend.

New Best Friend #3: Rag and Detergent

This best friend is great when it comes to spills (accidental AND otherwise), accidents involving bodily fluids and, as they get older, scribblings. Scribblings on the walls, on the floors and even their chairs.

I do try to get them to clean their own scribblings sometimes, but my success rate has been going downhill. It used to be above 75%, now I'm lucky to get 50%.

New Best Friend #4: Dettol

A must for any new parent, especially when dealing with tiny baby spit ups. Betcha never thought something so small could produce something so foul smelling, eh? What amazed me was that even regular soap and water couldn't really get rid of the smell of baby spit up. Only dettol!

Dettol was our very, very good friend when Abang was taken ill and vomitted non-stop. It got rid of The Vom Smell very effectively. In fact, after awhile our living room started to smell eerily like a hospital.

Now I'm also starting to get well acquainted with the broom (for sweeping up crumbs - it's almost like Hansel and Gretel, I know where they've been just by following the crumbs) and my sewing kit (for sewing up trousers that are too big).

After this, it's just a hop, skip and jump to a real sewing machine for those tears in their school uniform - they are boys, after all, swinging on trees and what have you - and a variety of pencils and colour pencils for those homework headaches.

Speaking of headaches - and panadol too.