Electronic Gadgets Era Kids

During my time as a tween and teenager, my brothers, friends and I, we used to run on the road outside our house.... to play 'Eager Catching Chickens', hop scotch, fly kites and to play marbles. We would also look forward to catch tadpoles in the drains after a downpour, cycled within 5km radius away from our house to the nearby river to enjoy the scenery, plucked flowers as we cycled, climbed trees, played real masak-masak by frying dried leaves and twigs with fire and anything that we could think of that was outdoor. It was pretty safe then and my mum did not have to worry about us being kidnapped or being ran down by vehicles. I really really do miss those younger days of mine and wished that my girls could enjoy such care-free and happy childhood with their friends. But it's an entire different picture now with kids these days. My kids never have the opportunity to do the activities that I did when I was their age. Instead, they are very attached to electronic gadgets like the TV, laptop, iPad, iPod,iPhone and Nintendo.


Baby playing with her Nintendo and is very adept with it too...

Most kids that I see these days have their hands and eyes glued to an electronic device, including mine! I think it's mainly because it's safer to be at home than on the road or outside their homes. If you are unlucky, you will be seriously injured by an acid splasher! Yeah, acid splashers are lurking everywhere now and it's scary to walk alone on the street.

I'll bet your kids are the same, aren't they? Let me know.

Do you hug and kiss your spouse in front of your kids?

Just before hubby left the house for basketball today, he gave me a peck on the cheek. Alycia saw it. In the past when she was little, she would get extremely jealous whenever she sees daddy hugging or kissing mummy. She would push us and separate us and then cry. Now, as she is older and is more mature in her thinking, she would even encourage us to hug!! One time she asked me this "mummy, do you love daddy? Why do you quarel with him?" when she saw us arguing with each other.

When she saw daddy giving mummy a peck just now, she smiled shyly and then walked away. When Sherilyn came out from the bedroom, Alycia announced this loudly "just now I saw daddy kissing mummy, ahahahahah! I am going to tell all my friends in school tomorrow ahahahahah!" My maid and probably my mil heard it. That was really malu I tell yer. I immediately reprimanded her and warned her not to say it. Now, we better be careful of what we do, else our 3 little monkeys will broadcast it to the world!

Do you hug and kiss your spouse in front of your kids?

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Why Did Alycia Do That?

Yesterday, Alycia did something that's unimaginable and absolutely gross. After she had finished her milk before her afternoon nap, she went to drink water from her cup. She then picked her nose, dug out some 'gold' and flicked it into Sherilyn's cup of water. I did not see her doing that but after her mischievous act, she ran to me feeling guilty yet thinks it's funny and said "mummy, I put my nose poop into Kay Yi's water". I was fuming mad and asked why she did that. She just giggled and brushed the incident aside and took it with a pinch of salt. This is not the fist time she had done something so mischievous. She had previously done something similar like putting her 'gold nugget' into her her sister's mouth. I just don't understand why she had done something so gross and naughty as she absolutely knows that it is not right to do.

Sherilyn's First Whip From Daddy

For the first time, Sherilyn got whipped from daddy yesterday. It was almost dinner time and daddy came home early yesterday and was lying on the floor in the hall to get some rest. Sherilyn was playing and started to throw her toys everywhere. When daddy scolded her and told her to stop throwing the toys, as usual, she tried to turn deaf and continued with her toys throwing spree until a 'flying saucer' which was an Ikea plastic plate landed on daddy's mouth and cut daddy's inner lip. He bled quite a bit and was in pain and he was furious. When daddy showed the bloody lip to Sherilyn, she was scared....scared because the usual fun-loving and forgiving daddy looked very furious and in pain. This is how frightened and worried Sherilyn looked.

Daddy then came to her and said this :

Daddy - Kay Yi, say sorry to daddy...

Sher - shorry.

Daddy - Kay Yi, which hand did you use to throw the toy at daddy? Look at daddy's lip.... it's bleeding. Daddy got to punish you now. I will beat your hand 3 times.

Sherilyn then forwarded her right hand and daddy hit her hand lightly one time. As he was about to hit the hand the second time...

Sher - My hand got shaliva......

and she retracted her hand. I was controlling hard not to laugh at the silly excuse given by Sherilyn. What kind of excuse is that, saliva on her hand!

Daddy - give me your hand Kay Yi.....

but she struggled to stay her hand away from daddy like this....

Finally when daddy wanted to pull her hand out....

Sher - ENOUGH daddy.....

I laughed hard but pursed my lips tightly to contain the laughter coz Sherilyn sounded so cute when she blurted out 'enough daddy' in her babyish voice. Daddy too wanted to laugh but tried really hard to suppress his laughter.

Anyway, daddy gave her another light whip on her hand and then we all proceeded to have dinner.

For 15 minutes during dinner, Sher just stared blankly at daddy observing closely his expression and perhaps trying real hard to figure out how to cheer daddy up. She was chewing her food but not swallowing them.... just staring at daddy.

Daddy - swallow your food Kay Yi.

Sher continued to stare at daddy with a guilt-stricken expression on her face.

Daddy - open your mouth Kay Yi...

Sherilyn then opened her mouth wide and said "NOTHING... heheheheh....."

Daddy, Alycia, my maid and I burst out laughing out really hard till our belly hurt and of course, Sherilyn was laughing away as if to tell us " I won again. See... i am smart"

After dinner, just as daddy was about to leave the house to watch a basketball match, Sherilyn shouted across the hall to daddy...

Sher - daddy, kiss you......

Daddy's heart melted. He walked over to Sherilyn and let her kiss him on his cheek.

Sherilyn really knows how to melt the coldest of heart and douse off a fire raging an angry heart. She's really manipulative and witty. Really, you tell me, how to get angry with her leh.

Weaning Off Diapers During Bedtime

Alycia is exactly 3.5 years old this month. She's 90% off diapers and only wears diapers during naptime in the day and during the night before bed. For months, I've been wanting to wean her off diapers completely but procrastinated coz the gals fell ill continuously at the beginning of the year plus I am lazy and don't have the zeal to pull myself off the bed the whole night to put her on the potty to pee. I know if she's off diapers completely, that's going to save DH LOTS of money on diapers. You know how costly Mamy Poko diapers are. Furthermore, I'm not sure how Alycia will react if I were to jolt her from slumberland to have her sit on her potty to pee. I think she'll most likely holler and wail in defiance and startle everyone in the house, not to mention our poor neighbours. This could go on for days, if not weeks or months.

How am I to know if my child is ready to be potty trained during naptime and bedtime? Well, Alycia still wakes up with an overloaded diaper and most of the time, she would even wet her clothes and the bed.

Would experienced parents care to share your experience?

Miss Pukey Sherilyn

Sherilyn is nicknamed Ms Pukey coz she throws up very easily from the time she was a baby right through now. She pukes when she cries, when she eats food that she doesn't like, particularly meat, when I brush her teeth, when she gets choked on food or when she's over-eaten and simply when she wants sympathy and attention. She even knew how to gagged her throat with her fingers till she puked just to get our attention whenever she was locked up in the playpen when she was barely a year old. She knew mummy would not easily succumb to her crying and pull her out from the playpen but if she pukes in the playpen, mummy would rush to her aid and bring her out from her little prison. See how cunning and manupulative my brat can be.

Sherilyn has been rather whiny, cranky and cries easily for no real reasons for the last few days till she really gets on my nerves. Yesterday, she woke up from her nap bawling away as if she had had a bad dream. Nothing seemed to subdue her. I then fixed her a bottle of milk and she drank it with her head lying on my lap like a baby.

When I went into the kitchen to wash the bottle, she was still bawling and rolling on the floor. I was already very pissed off with her as there was no apparent reason for her bawling and I've exhausted all my means of trying to placate her from distraction to laughter and my patience was really wearing thin.

As I had expected, Ms Pukey then choked, coughed a tad bit and I knew she was about to puke. This happens most of the time when Sherilyn has a bawling session. I dashed right into the storeroom and fished out a huge garbage bag (that's all I could see in the storeroom) and headed back to retrieve Sherilyn's vomit. The milk that had formed into fresh curd spewed out from Sherilyn's throat right into the garbage bag. After she was done, she pushed the bag away and said "finish already".

Afterthat, I brought Sherilyn to the loo to have her washed up. As she sat on the toilet, she was still whining and sobbing for no apparent reasons. I was even more pissed off with her now and as I looked her straight into her face, I told her this, "Sherilyn what's the matter with you? Why are you crying non-stop for no reason? You're not in pain, you're not hungry, cheh cheh didn't bully you and you're not a baby. Only babies cry like this because they don't know how to talk. Can you tell me what you want instead of cry? If you want to be a baby, fine.... I'll put you into the playpen and you stay in there". Without any second thoughts, Sherilyn blurted out "i don't want playpen". For a moment, I could feel something magical had happened. Sherilyn stopped bawling, then the bawl gradually dwindled into a faint whimpering and then as I dried her body and put on her clothes, she transformed into an angel.... singing and giggling as she tried to start a conversation with me. Hiyah... kids are just so unpredictable and sometimes you just don't know whether to get mad or laugh at their quirks and idiosyncrasies.

A Bad Day

At times, Alycia and Sherilyn's behaviour and temperament can be crazy... though I hate to use this word to describe my 2 gals but they behave as though they are crazy and totally out of control.... and this drives me crazy.

Today is one of those crazy days where both Alycia and Sherilyn got all cranked up right from the moment they rose from the bed in the morning through pass lunchtime.

Early this morning, Sherilyn had refused to get up from bed coz she wanted to watch the Shrek 3 vcd that DH had bought last night and gave the gals half an hour of viewing just before they went to bed. I am totally against letting the gals watch cartoons just before bedtime as they would rebuff going to bed later and a meltdown would ensue when I turn off the tv. However, DH who spends very little time with the gals love pampering his 2 angels with not-so-healthy pass-times and his favourite pass-time with the gals is spent watching cartoon with them on the bed before bedtime, which infuriates me.

Last night after I had turned off the tv, a meltdown begun as the gals demanded to have more Shrek. DH had to spend half an hour coaxing the gals to bed whilst I just laid on my bed, 'no eye see' and said "serves you right" to DH. He had to carry Alycia and Sherilyn one by one from our bed to the gals bed in the room next door at least 6 times as the gals demanded to be carried like a baby to be transferred to their bed over and over again for a good 15 minutes and it was already way past 11:30pm. What the fun!

This morning, Sherilyn refused to get up from bed as she wanted to watch Shrek 3. After I had failed coaxing and distracting her, I just pulled her out from bed and then another meltdown session begun. This lasted until lunchtime. Sherilyn would disagree over everything and kept whining and whimpering. The sounds of her whining just make me insane.

When lunch time came, the gals were happy coz I had baked a loaf of bread and they had sandwich for lunch. Then the gals demanded for their dessert and I gave them a packet of organic alphabet biscuits to be shared between them. When my maid opened the packet and gave the first biscuit with the letter 'A' to Sherilyn, Alycia saw and hollered and said she wanted to have biscuit A too as Alycia begins with the letter 'A'.
Before my maid could retrieve it back, Sherilyn had already bitten on the biscuit and then another crazy meltdown begun. Alycia wailed and rolled on the floor. We tried to look for another biscuit with the letter 'A' for Alycia but unfortunately there was only 1 miserable 'A' biscuit which is now in Sherilyn's tummy. Alycia's outburst lasted for around 15 minutes when I could no longer stand it and decided to open another box of organic biscuit with moon shapes. This managed to subdue the gals for a while.

Amidst Alycia's tantrum outburst, Miss Pukey Sherilyn vomitted on the kitchen floor after I had cleaned her teeth with a hanky after her lunch.

Alycia who was still seething and terribly upset that she didn't get her 'A' biscuit then started to act up. She scolded my maid by saying terrible things like "I hate you kakak, I want to cut your stomach". OMG, where on earth did she learn such an awful thing? I then lectured her and this made Alycia more upset. Alycia then scolded me and blurted out the word "stupid". OMG... I was even more enraged now and gave her another lecture and I think this time she finally realized she was wrong to have scolded her mummy.

After lecturing Alycia, I then left the gals alone and they slowly patched things up between themself whilst I went to the computer to destress and chill myself out.

Now, they are gleefully playing and giggling away as if nothing had happened. Sometimes, it is better to ignore a child when they are in the midst of a tantrum outburst. I sometimes give them the cold silence treatment and continue doing my things nonchalantly and I think they somehow got the message through.

Sorry for the loooooong and boring post! Just needed to divert my anger somewhere else sometimes.

Picking Up Toys

This is normally the scene at my house if I am not around to supervise my gals when they play. Lately, I've started to train my gals to keep their toys after they are done with them. It's not easy to get them to cooperate as most of the time, they'll just ignore me and continue playing, as though I am invisible. It's only when I raise my voice (again), threathen them and flash out the cane that they finally hear me. But when they are in a good mood, they will gleefully and willingly keep their toys without being told. Guess they have been pampered by the maid who has always been cleaning up their mess. Time to make a change now.

My 2 Brats

Many strangers who see Alycia and Sherilyn for the first time always commend how well-behaved, demure and ladylike they are. Oh pul-leeeasse.... I always tell them wait till you see them when they are at home. From demure, angelic cute little things, they immediately transform into brats and monsters the moment they step foot into the house and can effortlessly turn the house upside down within minutes.

Talking about disciplining my gals, they tend to turn deaf temporarily when mummy speaks in a nice, motherly, cultured tone. It's only when I transform into a monster mummy that my gals do finally hear me. So can you imagine what my neighbours think of me, the petite charming lady from that house with 2 sweet little gals? You know, that house where you hear yellings, threats and bribes the whole day long?

How do you control 2 brats who are ever active, rumbustious, destructive, rebellious, temperamental, wilful and samseng (tom-boyish)?

This was what happened a few days ago when I was busy writing a paid post and had neglected my 2 brats for an hour or so.


This 'train' is actually the case of a 3-tier toyogo drawer set, pushed down.


Alycia the ring-leader got stuck in the case and cried out for help but evil mummy said "serves you right" ... and then pulled her out and gave her a good lecture.

Thumb Sucking

Sherilyn the thumb-sucker at 3 months.



2 years on.... and still a happy and cheerful thumb-sucker.

Sherilyn's other obsession is thumb sucking. From the time she was in my womb till now, age 2 yrs 3 months, she has always been a compulsive thumb-sucker. She finds such great comfort, security, relief and syiok-ness sucking her thumb. She sucks her thumb when she's sleepy, hungry, bored, happy, sad and when she sleeps.

Many well-meaning friends and relatives urged me to wean her off this habit but I don't think I want to do do it just yet. I actually find this thumb sucking in Sherilyn so.... well, syiok. I simply adore seeing her suck her thumb. She looks so baby-ish, so adorable, so manja, so helpless, so very cute when she sucks her thumb. So why do I want to take away this feeling of comfort and security from my little baby girl? I am confident that she will weane herself off this habit when she's ready, when she knows the feeling of embarassment, when she's matured enough to understand that it doesnt' look decent and cultured to be thumb-sucking in public. So, I'll just let it be and let time takes it course.

Here are some excerpts on thumb-sucking from my Dr Benjamin Spock baby book on thumb sucking for the benefit of my readers who have toddlers who are thumb-suckers:

1. If you keep on worrying (about thumb sucking), even though you resolve to say nothing, your child will feel your tension and react against it.

2. Remember that thumb sucking goes away all by itself in time.

3. Eventually it disappears for good.

4. It rarely stops before three years.

5. It usually peters out between three and six.

6. Thumb sucking by itself is not a sign of unhappiness or maladjusment or lack of love. In fact, most thumb suckers are very happy children and children who are severely deprived of affection don't thumb suck.

7. Dentists point out that if the baby gives up thumb-sucking by six years of age, as happens in a great majority of cases, there is very little chance of its displacing the permanent teeth. (what a relief!)

8. Don't nag or bribe your child to stop thumb-sucking.

Daddy Dearest

DH normally works late and is only home after the gals are fast asleep, so when he does come home early, the gals will get all excited and scream "daddy is back, daddy is back...." the moment they hear his car engine running outside the house. They will then act up over every single thing just to get their daddy's attention and love. Sometimes I wonder if it's a cheer or a jeer for me that DH is home to be with the gals coz I just can't get the gals to do anything when their daddy is around. All they want is to play with daddy and do all the 'mummy forbids' with daddy coz they know they can bully daddy and get away with daddy however they fancy and daddy just won't get mad.

Last nite, just as the gals were about to have their night milk fixes, daddy came home. Both Alycia & Sherilyn rushed to daddy and demanded to lie on his lap like a baby to drink their milk and they took almost half an hour of their sweet time 'manjaing' with daddy before finishing off their milk.


Don't you think I look like a proud mother pig feeding its litter of piglets?

I Want To Suck Chicken Bone

Ummmm, really tasty & yummy this chicken bone.

I love it mummy. I want more, I want all the chicken bones!

I also want to suck chicken bone mummy!

Alycia has discovered a new found skill recently. She discovered that the chicken meat tastes sooooo much more yummy if she sucks the flesh out directly from the bone. For the last few weeks, each time we had a chicken dish, she would shout "Mummy, I want to suck chicken bone!" She even knows how to use her tiny fingers to dig out the tiny pieces of flesh from between the bones. It's really finger licking good for her.

Sherilyn who loves to parrot and rubber stamp everything that her sister does also followed suit, only to spit out the meat after chewing it. Being a herbivore, Sherilyn dislikes meat of all sorts, except for fish balls. She tends to spit up the meat after chewing them. Sigh.... what a picky eater.

Now, I have one less task to do, no need to debone and cut chicken meat into tiny pieces for Alycia, but got to be extra watchful so that Alycia doesn't choke on the bones.

Transition From Co-Sleeping To Sleeping Independently

My gals used to co-sleep with us since they were born. When they were newborns, they slept with DH and I, wedged between us, that made them feel oh so secured. That also made breastfeeding so much easier for me. After I weaned them off breastfeeding, I transferred them to their Safe n Sound baby cots, so we had 2 baby cots in our room then, one next to me and one at the foot of our bed.

After we moved to our new place late last year, my mum strongly advised me to wean them off co-sleeping with DH and I. You see, this new place of ours has a connecting room / kids' room to the master bedroom, which makes weaning off co-sleeping all the more easier. So DH bought a queen-size mattress and a kids' bed railing for the gals. Later, he bought a big cupboard and filled the cupboard up with their toys. My mum also bought cute cartoon bedsheets for the mattress and we all tried to make the whole transition appear really fun. The gals and I slept horizontally on the mattress, with me sandwiched between them. Everynite, after lulling the gals to sleep, I would quietly sneak back to my room to continue sleeping or to do my work.

Of course, there were teething problems initially. It took the gals almost 2 months for them to begin identifying that that is their room, the place for them to sleep and play and the master bedroom is only for daddy and mummy. I had 2 months of continuous interrupted sleep everynite, a few times a nite. I'm glad that they now adore their room. Even when DH sometimes invites them to sleep over at our room, the gals would insist that they want to sleep in their own room, on their own mattress.

Every now and then, I still get 'night visitors' to my room. It's really freaky you know, to be jolted up from your sleep and dream with a tap on your shoulder or hand, only to find 2 little figures standing next to you smiling. A few nites ago, Sherilyn had climbed onto my bed herself in the middle of the nite and slept next to me at the very edge of the bed. When I turned over, it freaked me to find her sleeping next to me with her 2 tiny legs dangling over the edge of the bed. One roll over from Sherilyn would have landed her hard on the floor.

I think I better get DH to fix a security gate at our room door now.

Terrible Twos

Is it true that all kids will go through the 'terrible twos' (TT) phase? Well at least for my 2 gals. For both Alycia and Sherilyn, the symptoms slowly started to appear a few months shy of their 2nd birthdays. Sherilyn is now 2 yrs 2 mths and is at the peak of the TT phase, though she's not as teruk case as Alycia. I had a real hard time when Alycia was 2 yrs old. Here are some of Sherilyn's TT 'symptoms' :

Super rebellious and disobedient. When talked to nicely, will not listen. Will only listen when I flash out the cane.

Super vain-pot. Loves to choose her own clothes each time she's being changed. Refuses to wear anything that mommy or maid have chosen for her. A few nights ago, she insisted in wearing her favourite sleeveless dress to sleep. She cried and kicked till she almost puked when my maid put on her pyjamas for her. Thankfully, daddy came home in the nick of time to play hide-and-seek with her to placate her, otherwise my maid and I gotta clean up puke again.

Very manipulative. If she can't get what she wishes for, will cry, kick and roll on the floor till she vomits. When distraction doesn't work on her, I normally ignore her and let her cry her eyes out. Normally after a 15 - 20 mins tantrum outburst, she will 'self heal' and be herself again, laughing and playing with her sister.

Likes to whine for no reason. Sounds of whinning from my gals drive me bonkers.

Refuses to sit still when I read to her. She used to love me reading to her. She's more of a Glenn Doman baby than Alycia but lately, displayed very little interest in reading or looking at my flashcards. So I reduce the frequency of these reading sessions and let her enjoy her TT phase. I know she will mellow down when she's nearing 3 yo, just like Alycia.

So how do you handle a kid with a TT behaviour?

Patience, power of distraction and some humour.... these are the virtues to subdue a kid with TT behaviour.

Do I have them? Yes, when I'm in a good mood.

That's why everyday, I pray to God to bless me with tons of patience, tolerance and wisdom to be a better mom. I hope God answers my prayer.