One hundred dollars

Going to Waterway Point, Rachel announced, "I have one hundred dollars."

I exclaimed, "You brought one hundred dollars?"

Her reply, "No, more!"

Who's not sleeping?

At 10:30 pm one night, Andrew started shouting "Aunty! Aunty!" from his room.

S went to check on him, telling him, "Aunty is sleeping! Go to sleep! Everyone is sleeping!"

Andrew retorted, "Except you!"

Sunday 13 November 2016

The day began well with Matthew receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation at the 11am Mass at St. Anne's Church. All the grandparents were there, as well as my brother and his family. Everyone came to our place for a pizza lunch. The kids watched tv, played games, and some of the girls went to the playground, including Rachel. She came home crying, saying she had felt dizzy and had hit her head against the wall on her way home. She went in for a nap, as had Andrew who was surprisingly amenable to it. He must have been well tired out!

When our guests had left and it neared dinner time, Sophie and I went to the coffeeshop to get food for the kids, while Sean and I would go out for dinner as we usually did of a Sunday night. When we stepped back into the house, I heard Sean calling out, "Rachel is not well! Rachel is not well!"

I wondered what it could be as I went to the bedroom. Sean was carrying her and she was convulsing, her head and limbs twisted leftwards. She had also vomited and it was altogether frightening to see her like that. We quickly had Matthew call for the ambulance while we washed her down in the bathroom, Sean carrying her the whole time and the convlusions not stopping. She continued to be unresponsive to our calls, although at one time while dressing her they stopped briefly and I was afraid that she had choked on the vomit and was oxygen deprived and slowly fading away. I desperately called out to her to stay with me while frantically dressing her, and carried her down to wait for the ambulance which had drawn up and was just unloading the stretcher. They loaded it right back and Sean laid Rachel down in the back while I went and sat in front with the driver.

The ambulance made its way quickly to KKH through the rain and darkening sky. Cars tried their best to move aside as we bore down on them, our sirens blaring and wipers beating frantically from side to side. They gave Rachel a dose of anti-seizure medication in the ambulance and she finally calmed down after about ten minutes. The rest of the way she was completely knocked out and we prayed silently, for her to be well again, and for us to be able to accept whatever would come.

At the hospital they found that her lungs were clear and vital signs seemed normal. She was moved to the high dependency ward for monitoring and we eventually went home to get some sleep as we couldn't do anything more for her that night as she was already sedated from the seizure medication, and even after the sedation wore off, she would have gone into her normal night time sleep.

The next morning we went back to the hospital to find her sitting up in bed! I rushed over and held her close, and she was completely unfazed by the whole incident. It was like nothing had happened. She was cheerful and chatty, telling us that she was surprised to wake up and find herself in hospital. She couldn't remember anything beyond having gone to the playground.

They let her go home after observing her over another night. No follow-up medication, although they did give us some stand-by seizure medication which we have thankfully not ever had to use.

What a scare.

One Person

S took Rachel and Andrew to wash the car with him, and the two started fighting over who would put the coin into the water dispensing machine at the washing bay.

S told them that only one person could put in the coin, and they would have to sort it out.

Andrew immediately put up his hand and said, "I am one person!"

Drewby

I asked Andrew what he would like to be called when he grows up. Andy? Drew? Drewby? (that's my pet name for him)

"Drewby!"

I couldn't resist asking, "Who calls you that?"

"You la!"

Smelly

Andrew wanted me to wind down the car windows on the way home from his Chinese class.

I told him it wasn't a good thing to do as the road was full of exhaust fumes, the exhaust was unhealthy, and also smelly.

He said, "When you smell smelly things, when you smell my toes, you'll be smelly right?"

Dino Drinker

Reading his dinosaur picturebook with his daddy, Andrew asked, "Why the coelophysis drink from the swimming pool?" It was depicted drinking from a pond.

Sean asked him, "How should it drink?"

Andrew replied, "From a cup!"

From The Mouth Of Babes

Sean had taken Andrew and his Maxi Micro scooter to the nearby Punggol Waterway, a nice place for jogging and cycling.

As one lady ran towards them, Andrew pointed at her and asked loudly, "Why some people take off their clothes?" She was wearing a sports bra and shorts.

I guess it's really not very different from the situation in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes," except it's now called 'fashion.'

Dirty Things

From his car seat, Andrew annouced, "I'm eating dirty things, Mummy!"

I looked around at him, trying to see any potential source of "dirty things," but everything seemed fine. So I asked, "Where?"

"In my mouth."

"Where did you get it from?!"

"My nose."

Sugar Bread

When we went to the supermarket today, we discovered that the cheerful little confectionery on the side had been torn down. Andrew used to get a sweet butter bun there on our weekly grocery trips. Now, it was a desolation strewn with wreckage, puddles soaking the floor.

He looked on the scene quietly. Then he said, "No more sugar bread for me."

We packed the groceries into the boot and drove home. On the way back in the car, he suddenly said, "My sugar bread is lost. I feel very sad. I am going to cry."

How To React On Being Locked Out

"OI!! MOMMY AND DADDY!! OPEN THE DOOR!! IT'S LOCKED! CANNOT LOCK THE DOOR!.... Ah?!"

That would be Andrew on waking up from his nap.

Not A Cute Boy

Sophie said to Andrew, "You're so cute!!"

"I'm not cute! I'm clever boy. And hamsome boy. And angry boy!"

Not Working

Andrew stood in the bathroom, waiting to pee, but without success.

"Daddy, it's not working, my p****!"

Later on, while showering, he suddenly peed.

"It's working now!"

Mercedes Boy

"Mercedes Boy" is a song by Pebbles, released in 1987.

Sean played it in the car one day, while driving with Andrew. After listening to it for a while, Andrew asked, "Is that the Mercedes song?"

Sean said yes.

When the song ended, Andrew asked, "Can I have the Kia song?"

Serious.

One of our toys is broken and has been glued back, waiting to dry.

"Children!" *waving a threatening finger* "Listen ah! Nobody touch it!"

That would be Andrew, warning the rest of us. He had broken the toy, by the way.

Sean says to him, "Oh, you're being so serious!"

Andrew retorts in a stern tone of voice, "I'm not serious!"

Lo!

We were at the supermarket - Sean pushing the trolley with Andrew in it while I went around with a basket to pick up the vegetables.

Andrew suddenly asked Sean, "Is that your Lo?"

"My what?" Then he saw what Andrew was referring to and realised what Andrew meant. 

"Yes," replied Sean.

When I caught up with them, he told me what had happened. I couldn't help asking Andrew what it was.

"Daddy's," he replied.

"Daddy's what?"

"Lo."

"Milo?"

"Daddy's."

"Is that also your Lo?"

"Yes, Milo," placing his little hand on his chest.

Angrew

"I'm be angry!"

That's what Andrew says a lot these days. The slightest thing sets him off. When he says that, we'd tell him, "Okay!"

"Don't say 'Okay'!"

"All right."

"Don't say 'All right'!"

Nothing satisfies him. Then he catches sight of some passing car and goes "Volkswagen!" or "Ford!" or whatever it may be. That cures him in a jiffy. He's really mad about cars at the moment.

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Another time, Rachel was whining in the car because she didn't get the song she wanted on the stereo.

"Seriously, Rachel!"

We all stared! That was Andrew! He must have picked that up from Sarah, our latest teen.

Or he might go, "I suppose," if you ask him what he thought.

He might also put a knowing finger on his chin and say, "Hmm, let me think."

Are you happy or sad?

I asked Andrew, "Are you happy?"

He didn't reply, so I asked instead, "Are you sad?"

"I'm Andrew!"

Andrew's Sayings

If the kid doesn't get something that he wants very much, he goes, "Silly day!"

So if I tell him that he cannot play with my tablet anymore, he'll frown at me and say, "Tsk! Silly day! Mommy!" in very emphatic tones.

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We know that the rubbish truck is at the next block collecting trash when its unmistakable whine comes on. You can see it from the living room windows.

Andrew runs to the windows, calling out, "Ruddish truck! Give me back my pacifier!"

Way to school

Now that Rachel is going to a new kindergarten along Thomson Road, we drive her there every morning. Andrew often comes along and we sometimes take him for prata at the Casuarina prata place on our way home, since we have to pass it by anyway.

Sean being on a work trip, I was doing the sending one morning.  Somehow it got around to Rachel trying to get Andrew to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She asked him to sing it a few times, but without success. She tried another approach.

Rachel: Andrew, Andrew! Sing "twing"!

Andrew: Kel.

Rachel: Twing.

Andrew: Kel.

Rachel: Li.

Andrew: Tel, star.

Rachel: How.

Andrew: I.

Rachel: Won.

Andrew: Der.

Rachel: What.

Andrew: Joo.

Rachel: Are.

Andrew: Star! Go eat prata!