Abang's First Love (Lost)

Abang has 2 Indian girls as his best friends at kindergarten. Sure, he mentions lots of other children as well, like Bryan (who also loves Transformers, as does his brother Brandon), Adlina (a cute Malay girl who stays "full day", i.e. day-care, at kindergarten), Irsyad (whose snot tends to trickle down his nose into his mouth, ewww), Sarveswaran (who has a tendency to vomit at school), Lee An Qie (who also scored 95% in her Mandarin test) as well as some of the teachers children like Gopinath and Jeganath.

But these 2 girls feature greatly in his everyday conversations about school. Lately, one of them less so than the other - a falling out perhaps? Anyway, the other girl, Keshika, still seems to be his best friend.

He told me on several occasions, "When I'm big I'm going to marry Keshika." So I play along. He generally understands the concept of a "couple", "parents", etc, plus he's been to a few weddings so he's familiar with the term "orang kahwin", or "get married".

On a related note, there is a very nice house just down the road from Atok's house that he really likes. Abang refers to it as a 'castle'. He used to ask me when we can buy it but has since given up because I keep telling him it's too expensive and we can't afford it. So now he talks about when HE buys it when he's bigger.

He said, "If I live there then I can just walk to Atok's house because it's so near."

A few days ago, during his shower, he mentioned the house again. Then he said the funniest thing, "Too bad Keshika don't want to marry me."

I tried to stifle a laugh by asking, "Really? How do you know? You asked her?"

"Ya. But she said she doh-wan because she wants to marry someone richer."

Aah, Abang! Welcome to the real world!

Disciplining My Boys

It occurred to me just the other day, that I have not two, but three boys to discipline!

We were trying to get Adik to take a shower and told him that Daddy will shower him in the downstairs bathroom. He was dilly-dallying and we were in a bit of a rush so we had to be a little bit firm.

"Quick Adik, we have to go already. Cepat mandi with Daddy downstairs."

"NOOooo...! Adik tak nak mandi!!!"

"No, you have to mandi, it's time to mandi then we're going out, remember?"

Daddy switched the hot water on downstairs and got his towel, all ready to give Adik a shower. "Come, Adik, let's mandi here," Daddy tries his luck.

"No. Adik want to mandi upstairs." I don't know WHERE this stubborn streak comes from.

"Alright, if you want to mandi upstairs then you mandi with Mummy," Daddy tries to be firm (read: TRIES).

Mummy jumps into the fray, "Ok, jom, mandi upstairs with Mummy."

Suddenly The Stubborn One shows up, "NOOO! Adik mandi upstairs WITH DADDY!" complete with a tinge of whining and the beginnings of a tantrum.

When he realised we were not going to give in, The Stubborn One transformed into Ole Big Eyes, giving Daddy those big eyes and soft voice, "Dadd-deeeee .... Adik want mandi with Dadd-deeee.... upstairs...."

Before I could even open my mouth, Daddy had scooped him up, cooing all over him soothing a non-existent tantrum all the way to the bathroom upstairs.

If I were a cartoon character, I would have had a completely red face coupled with smoke coming out of my ears.

5 minutes later I went upstairs and gave a very sheepish Daddy "the look". "Whaaat?" Daddy asked innocently.

"Hmmm. Looks like some good old fashioned disciplining is in order," I said.

"But look at those big eyes, dear ... how can you say no to those big eyes?" Daddy is sinking in that hole he dug himself.

"Not him, dear, YOU!"

Mutter mutter, grumble grumble.

Pets' Day Out

The boys' kindergarten organised a "Pets' Day Out" last Friday. Their theme for the week was animals so they ended the week with a talk by a veterinarian on caring for pets as well as an 'exhibition' by asking the children to bring in their pets.

They limited it to small animals and those that can be kept safely in cages. Of course, Abang asked if he can bring Harun to school!

We were more than happy to support the kindergarten's initiative so early Friday morning we got Harun and tried to get him into the carrier. He was adamant about not going in. Thomas was milling about nearby wondering what was going on. So, on to Plan B: let's send Thomas to school instead. Daddy scooped up Thomas and just had to guide him into the carrier. No problem.

When we got to the kindergarten, there were already many pets there - hamsters, fish, turtles and a bird. The younger children were so excited! In fact, the teachers had a tough time getting the children inside because they kept wanting to see the animals. Thomas was the only cat at school that day.

The vet was from the SPCA who also distributed little wristbands with phrases like "Be Kind to Animals" and "Stop Animal Abuse".

We think it's great that the kindergarten organises talks like these and not just focus on academics.

Feeling Jinxed

I've been feeling rather jinxed today, or, in layman's terms, "suey".

It started on Saturday night when my car alarm suddenly went off just before midnight. Not only was it annoying but it was highly embarrassing as well. One of my neighbours called me, asking if everything was alright. Luckily they were not asleep yet, and they were very concerned as there had been a couple of robberies in our area lately.

The alarm continued triggering randomly over the weekend, so on Monday morning I took it to the dealer to get it sorted out. I thought it was sorted out and came back happily.

When I got back, I tried using my notebook and realised my keyboard was wonky. In order for the characters to appear on the screen, I had to press down and hold each key! Aaaargh! How frustrating. All Daddy could say was, "Hooray! Time to get Mummy a new notebook!" In the end I settled for borrowing Abang's notebook when he wasn't using his computer. (Yes, how sad that I have to borrow my 5-year old's computer.)

The next day, lo and behold, my phone started telling me strange messages like "Insert SIM card" and then something like "Aiya, why you trying to save pictures, you where got Memory Stick laaa". Ok I admit, this may be my fault as I had dropped it a couple of times. Anyway, after removing and re-inserting the SIM card and Memory Stick, the phone hasn't complained since.

Tuesday night my car alarm was acting up again. Although I did not arm it - so as not to cause it to trigger - it still made a very annoying "beep beep beep" sound. And it was loud enough to disturb Daddy's sleep. Sigh. So this morning (Wednesday), I decided to take it back to the dealer to get them to do something different.

While preparing breakfast for the boys, guess what? Our cooking gas ran out. Ok, no big deal, we always have a spare gas cylinder on hand. I changed it BUT for some reason, the gas head wouldn't snap on to the new cylinder. Now I was really starting to feel suey.

Alright, I just left some money with Wan to get a new cylinder to replace the empty one. And I asked her to please ask the gas man if he can fix the gas head on to the new cylinder. Failing which, perhaps that one is faulty and so could she please ask him to take that back and replace that one as well. While he's here, get him to fix it onto the gas head immediately and make sure it works.

So off I went on my merry way to get my car alarm sorted. I was quite pleased when they told me it was done (by the way, we just asked them to disconnect the siren and we'll try to get the real problem fixed another day) and drove off. That's when I thought, "Hang on, why is my air cond blowing out hot air?" AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaarrrrrrrrrggghhh .....

I literally reversed back to the dealer and got him to undo whatever his guy had to done to my air cond while working on my alarm. 10 minutes later, it was fixed. Phew!

When I got home, Wan told me no gas man passed our house today. Of all days! Normally, everyday, a few times a day, we'd have a symphony of lorry honks selling everything through our neighbourhood - gas, vegetables, mattresses - in addition to our roti man (good thing he can be counted on). But noooooooo ... today, the one day, we desperately need our gas man, is the day when neither of our 2 regular guys drive by.

Good thing we had enough leftovers for the boys' lunch so no cooking was needed. Ah yes, time to fetch the boys! When we got home, Abang told me his water bottle broke and so the water leaked out into his bag, wetting his spare clothes.

Ant J suggests that I make an offering, perhaps in the form of J.Co Donuts, to appease The Jinx Gods.

Right now, I'll try anything.

Adik's Boo-Boo

Adik had a boo-boo the other day.

He and Abang were playing masak-masak, pretending to 'cook' their UNO cards in some vegetable baskets. They were using a kitchen thong which, unfortunately, has rather sharp sides.

Suddenly, Adik started crying. And I recognised that cry. It wasn't the I'm-angry-at-the-world cry, neither was it the I'm-pretending-to-cry-to-get-attention, it was a real, honest-to-goodness "HELP! I HURT MYSELF!" cry.

I rushed over and saw that he had dropped the thongs and clutched his index finger. I took a look at it and saw a little cut. It didn't look very serious so I just ooh and aah-ed over it and pacified him. Then I told him we'd go upstairs to clean it, put some antiseptic cream and then a bandage on it. He was quite agreeable to that, all the while clutching his finger. In the meantime, I wanted to switch the TV off, etc - in other words it was a few minutes before we made it up the stairs.

Wan heard the commotion and asked to see his finger. Phwoaaaarrr ... both his hands were covered in blood! Of course she freaked out - and then we both had a brilliant idea: let's show it to Abang to discourage him from playing with those thongs in the future.

Abang's expression changed very quickly from "ho-hum, yea yea, whateverrrr..." to "whoa". By the time Adik and I got upstairs I couldn't tell which finger it was that was cut! Eventually I cleaned off all the blood and found the cut, put some cream on it and then asked Adik to choose a bandage.

Besides a box of plain, transparent plasters, I also have a box of Scooby-Doo plasters, Buzz Lightyear plasters and Strawberry Shortcake plasters. He chose Strawberry Shortcake. I figured this wasn't the time to worry about, um, gender inclination so I agreed. Anyway, I was sure he would want to take it off before going to kindergarten the next day.

Sure enough, the next day he asked to take it off and requested a Scooby-Doo plaster.

Phew!

P/S. When we went back downstairs, I noticed a drop of blood on the couch. Obviously a gravitational drop.

The Elephant Experience

Yes, we did it! We visited the Elephant Sanctuary at Kuala Gandah in Lanchang, Pahang. Lanchang is also home to Daddy's grandmother (a.k.a. "Wan Lanchang") so Nenek kindly made some nice fresh nasi lemak to have for lunch with Wan Lanchang before we go see those elephants.

First order of the day - get the boys to nap in the car. After fetching Ant J, the 6 of us (including Wan but excluding Nenek) set off towards Karak and stopped by the big Shelsl petrol station just before the turn off on the MRRII. I knew Abang was already asleep by then because he didn't ask for Dunkin' Donuts. Although I was pleased that he was asleep, in fact I was actually a little disappointed at not having any donuts for the drive, heheh. (Takpa, Ant J, nanti we terkam the J.Co next time we go to Sunway Pyramid.)

Adik was next, only about 10 minutes later. Ahhh ... peace in the car. Luckily traffic was as clear as the skies that day and it only took us slightly over an hour to get there. Wan Lanchang was very pleased to see her cucu-cicit and regaled us with family tales. (She's approaching 90, by the way.)

At about 1:30pm we set off for the sanctuary. It's only about 15-20 minutes drive from Wan Lanchang's house. But I think it felt much longer because as we approached the sanctuary, there were several stretches that were being re-paved and therefore just gravel and hence, very bumpy. Abang, our budak bandar, kept complaining, "Why the road so bum-peeee?"

When we arrived it was b-l-i-s-t-e-r-i-n-g hot and there were scores of visitors there already. We got their hats, water, snacks and off we went. It turns out that there are 2 types of visitors - the ones who are only allowed to watch and those who can participate in feeding and bathing the elephants. We're in the first group. Perhaps it was the heat, as well as the sheer number of visitors but I suspect it was a bit of a letdown for the boys who were extremely excited at the prospect of getting near the elephants. We had to hoist them up high for them to see the elephants and even then not that closely too. Still, I believe it was a good experience for them.

Soon we left but not before stopping by the little shop to get some chilled drinks and ice-cream ("Mmmm, this ice-cream is perfect for a hot sunny day!" said Abang) and of course, some t-shirts!


On the way back to went to the Deerland Park which is just about 5 minutes away from the Elephant Sanctuary. This was definitely much better. It's more shady, there are fewer people and there's more interaction with the animals. It's like a mini petting zoo.


The first thing we saw was, of course, deers. One of the staff immediately asked Daddy if he'd like to feed the deers. He handed a basket of chopped potato and carrots and instructed him to hold the basket high and feed low. Wow, those deers were quite aggressive! They obviously know how to spot tourists with food when they see one! In fact, one of them started chewing on Daddy's t-shirt. "Hmmm ... this cotton ... it tastes different ... not from around here... ni orang KL niiihh ..."


Abang attempted to feed them but he was too scared to go near them so he ended up just flinging the cut potato away from himself. Adik too was a little freaked out so as soon as we were done feeding them we left the pen and went to see other animals.


They have hedgehog, mousedeer, sunbear, rabbits, ostrich ... oh yes, Abang fed the ostrich too! And this time he didn't fling the food away from him, he actually held it out to them albeit with some help from the staff.

The Deerland Park is a little like IKEA in that it has one trail which everyone follows and it then takes you to the exit as well. Back at the car, Daddy had to change his shirt which had deer marks on it!

Back to KL and all the adults were ready to drop. Good experience, but very hot and tiring!