Men: The Weaker Sex - When It Comes To Needles

Recently my nephew had his tooth extracted and my sis was relating to me how he shivered and his voice shook in fear saying "No! No! I'm scared!" (He's 18 by the way) when the dentist was about to inject the painkiller. Similarly, she told us that her second son's face would often turn white and once he fainted when he was about to get an injection in school for some immunisation program.

Upon hearing this Mr MG quickly agreed that men has a lower threshold of pain (afterall ladies are made to stand labor pain, he argues) and is thus more afraid of needles than ladies. Is that right? Mr MG acts like a baby when he is about to get a shot. (Sorry darling. Hehe) Luckily he hasn't fainted yet but his face does get paler and he acts a bit nervous compared to MG who is often cool as a cucumber when it comes to injections.

I have (so far) not much problems facing the needle. And being the fine person that I am, I have fine veins too, so often if the injection is to draw blood (those bloodsuckers!) they'd have to try at least 3 times before they get it right!

I wonder, does everyone agree that men are more afraid of needles than women or does it just run in my family????

BTW, Happy Labour's Day to everyone (mums included even those not working in the office as we know it).

Taken for Granted

I feel taken for granted.

No one cares about me

Especially when things are going well

I am often relegated to the back burner and forgotten

Hah! If not for me, your life would not even be the way it is now

You would not be enjoying the things you are doing right this moment

So why do you ignore me? I can never understand it

Wake up! Stop taking me for granted.

I am HEALTH

MG: Ok, ok health. Don't merajuk. I know I have not been taking care of you very well. The only time I worried about you was the two times I was pregnant. Other than that, sorry lah. I won't ignore you anymore. I will take good care of you from now on ok? So please, please, don't lah merajuk. I need you to be good.

Waiting Room

Recently MG has been in a number of waiting rooms. So very free lah and bored, kpc, observe ppl and blog about it. Hahaha.

Scene 1 - At the hospital waiting room

MG was pleased to see a young couple with a baby and toddler. It was such a loving family scene. The daddy fed the toddler dinner, while the mummy played with the baby. Then the daddy carried the baby, while the mummy chatted with the toddler and later the daddy played with the toddler while the mummy carried the baby around the waiting room. So heartwarming and quite a rare scene these days.

No, it was not MG's family. MG chickened out and left baby and toddler with relatives because had to do and hour long test plus wait for doctor, wait to make payment, wait, wait, wait, figured out that by the time it was our turn to see the doc, baby and toddler would be so restless we wouldn't be able to have any meaningful discussion with the doc.

Scene 2 - At the paeditrician

Young, pretty mama with baby and toddler. Pretty mama sat prettily on the chair while a maid sat beside toddler at the playing area and either mom/mom-in-law fed baby with a bottle beside her. Pretty mama did not have a hair out of place, like just came out of salon like dat crossing and shaking her pretty feet clad in pretty high heeled sandals. (Wah, got time to paint toe nails summore!) When her baby's name was called, mom/mil handed baby over to her and pretty mama walked cooly into the doc's room.

Sadly this scene is getting more common these days. Can't blame pretty mama. She's working, dad's not around to help (hubby got good excuse mah, got maid and mom/mil around) and thats the only way to cope. Hmm... if I were her though, I'd probably be playing with my kids while waiting.

Warning: This Scene written by one sour grape mama with pony tail and clad in shirt and slacks and flat soles so description may be a bit biased.

Scene 3 - At the bookshop

During the weekends, Mr and Mrs MG would get our weekly dose of bookshop browsing at the shopping malls. We'd take turns to watch the kids while the other goes for a quick browse. If the quick browse becomes too long, the other is often greeted with a "Oi! How come so long!"

At the bookshop we often see sour faced, unhappy looking maids sitting with their young charges. Sometimes sour faced maid would be chasing their young charges around with a desperate look on their faces. Yah I sometimes get that desperate look too when toddler becomes uncontrollable but the difference is I am licensed to scold and smack toddler when the situation calls for it whereas sour faced maid often does not have that authority to discipline and the child knows it! No wonder the maids run away.

Sadly this scene is VERY common these days. Go to any shopping mall or supermarket and you will get to see sour faced maid following a family around.

Whats become of us? How come our parents could cope with more kids and less conveniences? I wonder how my mom coped and why I sometimes just sometimes can even be caught thinking that a sour faced maid would help? Hmm.. shame on me!

Feelings, nothing more than feelings.....

Child psychologist: Around 2-3 years of age the child is just discovering a wide range of feelings and emotions but does not know how to express them appropriately. So it is the parents' job to teach the child about his feelings and how to express them.

MG: (While shopping one day) Hmmm... this Barney tape about feelings would be good to teach toddler about emotions so she won't throw so many temper tantrums. Lets buy it.

After watching the tape........

Toddler: Mummy! Pleeaaaze bring me the horse. Don't make me mad!

Toddler: Mummy, I don't want to eat the porridge. I don't want! Don't make me sad! I scold you.

MG: Stop whining. Behave yourself. Don't make mummy angry.

Toddler: Mummy happy? Happy, mummy! (Toddler always says this whenever she sees MG angry or sad because she wants to see mummy happy all the time)

MG: Ok.

Yikes! Anyone interested in a second hand Barney VCD?

Mummy, don't be scared.

The sky was dark. The winds howled. Toddler ran to the window, lifted the curtains to watch and ran back to MG.

Toddler: Mummy! Got flashing lights!

MG: Thats called lightning sweetie. It means its going to rain soon.

The loud sound of the thunder filled the air. Toddler ran to MG and patted MG on the chest.

Toddler: Mummy. Don't be scared.

MG: Thats the sound of thunder you hear. It means theres going to be heavy rain soon.

As if on cue, it rained furiously and the sky became darker still.

Toddler than bent down and kissed MG on the head.

Toddler: Mummy. Don't be scared.

Hehe. I wonder who she is consoling?

What's the time?

Toddler can read numbers so she can tell the time on a digital clock but not on the real clock yet as she is still learning the concept of time.

MG: "Sweetie, can you tell mummy the time?"

Toddler: (Toddler runs to the digital alarm clock)

Toddler: "One, one, buttons, zero, six." (11:06)

MG: "Ha ha. Very good. Thats Eleven Zero Six (11:06) sweetie." (The "buttons" was what made MG laugh)

A moment later.......

Toddler: "Mummy, Eleven Zero Seven (11:07)."

Smart Toddler. MG beaming with pride.

Excited!

Baby woke up at 6.00am this morning and wouldn't go back to sleep. I was afraid he would wake toddler so I gave him a board book.

He studied the book carefully and turned the pages here and there. He looked at the front cover and back cover.

Then he studied the bedpost.... the wall..... the pillows....... the bedsheet....... his blanket...... me.

Then he started clapping his hands gleefully and beamed, his little face lighting up in a huge happy smile.

He finally went back to sleep at 8.00am. Hmm.... maybe he's excited and knows his first birthday is coming this Thursday. Hehe. Smart baby. Mummy sayang!

Emotional Milestones

The thing that I noticed about my kids is they discover emotions in the following sequence:

• Happiness
• Sadness
• Fear
• Anger

Babies learn to express happiness first of all. They will coo, smile and later laugh with such glee. After that they learn how to be sad for eg cry when a toy is taken from them. Then they learn to be afraid and angry.

Funny, how as we grow, we discover more and more negative emotions? Hmm.. must learn how to get back to the basics by being happy.

Toddler is discovering fear. Fear of the unknown. Even when she was quite young she learned fear when she heard loud drilling sounds that she could not identify. She would run to me, her face full of fear and hands beating her chest to indicate fear because she hadn't learned how to talk at the time. I would take the time to explain to her that what she heard was the sound of the worker drilling or the (rather loud) water pipe sound and later when she learned to talk she would repeat after me "Motopaip sond" (waterpipe sound). Thereafter we would identify sounds we heard in the night "People upstairs/downstairs", "Car horn" etc. It became a game and she was no longer afraid.

Recently, I saw her running away whenever she saw her bear video which showed a shadow dancing on the wall. I asked her why she did not like the shadow part and she merely ran further away but later that night she asked me:

Toddler: "Mummy, why I don't like the shadow part?"

MG: "Yes. Can you tell mummy why you don't like the shadow part? Are you scared?"

Toddler: (*thinking very hard and stuttering abit*) Ah.. mmm.. ah...umm "Mummy, why got nobody there?"

MG: (*lightbulb lights up*) "Oh don't worry its just a cartoon. Its just a show its not real ok?"

Toddler: "Mummy, where's the body?"

MG: (*hmmm.. how to explain this?*) "Well, its just a cartoon and they did not draw the body so thats why you don't see the body there."

Toddler: "Mummy. Its just a cartoon." (And she mumbled this at least 10X to herself and looked very pleased indeed.)

I don't think my explanation was very fantastic but it will suffice since she is happy with it. I am sooooo proud of my little girl who is smart enough to ask me these questions. And at times like this, I am really happy to be home looking after her. If I were working in addition to trying to be a mum, I think I would lack the focus, energy and time to chat with her about her fears let alone notice them in the first place.

Siblings

I think one of the best things to give a child is a sibling (thats just my personal view. Some are happy to have just one child and thats fine too if everyone in the family is happy with that).

When the second one comes along, the whole family dynamics changes dramatically. Toddler has to learn to adjust from being the only one to become a sibling. With a sibling of course comes sibling rivalry and love too.

Its funny how everytime someone wants to pick baby up, toddler would appear magically before the outstretched arms. She would take away baby's toys away from him, push him and tell him to go away but at the same time she loves her little baby brother too.

One day when no one was watching, I saw that she had accidentally hit baby's head with a rattle she was trying to give/snatch (not sure which) from him. She quickly reached down to kiss his head and said "Sorry. Sorry." She also likes to play "mummy" and tuck baby under his blankets and pat him softly on his back when he is sleepy.

Now if only I can provide a little sister for her too. I love my sisters, one 5 years and the other 8 years older than me. I think they're great. Better than any girlfriend and our sisterly relationship will last until the ends of our days.

Important Conversation

Toddler looking very important like she is carrying on a very important conversation and using some big, big words that she knows.

Toddler: "I think yada yada yada because yada yada yada something else yada yada yada animals yada yada yada..." (Yada is in replacement of some giberish language toddler used which only she can understand!)

MG: "Hmm, yes, really ah?" (Pretending to listen. Adults sometimes have this bad habit of not really listening to the child because we have so many things on our minds. Its bad because the child feels that what they say is very important to them. Imagine how you would feel if you spoke to your spouse and he/she wasn't really listening. Wouldn't you be annoyed too?)

Toddler: "Mummy, I'm talking to you!" (Toddler is not stupid, she can sense that MG was not really listening)

Toddler: "I think yada yada yada because yada yada yada something else yada yada yada animals yada yada yada..."

MG: Muahahahahaha (couldn't help breaking into laughter after really "hearing" toddler)

Toddler: "Not funny!" (looking extremely annoyed!)

which only made MG laugh even harder but I did apologize for laughing and tried to have a real conversation with her after that which was what she wanted very much.

As much as she likes to pretend to be having an important conversation, toddler likes to pretend to read as well. She would open up a book, point to the words as she goes along. Not sure why but her stories often include the words "mummy hug hug", "mummy sayang" in them. Hahaha. Funny girl.

The Innocence and Simplemindedness of a Child

Conversation with toddler in the toilet.

MG: "After going to toilet, we must flush and wash our hands."

Toddler: "Mummy, I want to do." (Toddler wanted to flush the toilet)

Toddler: (*press press press* on the lever which was rather hard for her and a little bit "rosak" (not working properly))

MG: "Come, let mummy help you." (*press press press* the flush a few times before it worked)

Toddler: "Mummy, got no battery." (referring to the flush)

Can you tell we have a lot of toys that run on batteries at home? Thats why we have rechargeable batteries. Otherwise, bankrupt liao!

Different Roles

Today MG is taking a break from blogging. Here's a blog from toddler instead. (OK ok lah, I confess. I'm blogging on behalf of toddler).

My mummy is for warmth and comfort. My daddy is for fun and play.

I love my daddy because he can....

• carry me high high on his shoulder
• feed me ice cream, chocolate and other goodies when mummy is not looking
• swing me high high on the swing at the park
• teach me to climb, hop and skip on one leg
• tickle me till I'm breathless and can't stop laughing
• sing funny songs

I love my mummy because she can...

• read to me and tell me great stories
• scratch and pat my back when I'm sleepy
• kiss my boo boos (pain) away
• bathe me without getting water in my eyes
• makes good food for me and baby (MG: "Sure or not?")
• sing nice lullabies

I Can Clap!

Baby has just learned how to put his hands together and clap! The look on his face is priceless. When daddy, mummy and toddler clap along to encourage him, his look was full of glee and he bounced up and down on his bottom clapping non-stop. Though he can't talk yet, his look was saying "Look at me! I'm so smart! I Can Clap!" I could tell he was very proud of his new achievement.

Toddler on the other hand is still at her negative phase. Previously she learned to say just the word "No!" Now it has advanced to "No, I don't like this." This sentence applies to just about everything including food, clothing, activities.... (*rolls eyes*). She says this even to things that were previously her favourites just for the sake of showing her new identity!