Mishap(s)

I got a call from my mum at lunchtime. She casually asked what I was doing. Said I was having my lunch at my desk. She started off with “Tadi Dan tarik meja…” and I thought ‘Oh boy, ni mesti dia tarik tablecloth and barang berterabur’. (Don’t ask how he manages to reach the tablecloth, I wonder too) Then my mum started sobbing and my blood ran cold. I tried to keep calm and figure out what she was trying to say in between sobs.

Remember this picture? The table leg he’s got a hold on is attached to a half-circle glass top facing the stairs at my parents’ house.

Aidan had pulled the table down. Right towards him.

My mum had put him in the walker and he was happily moving around trying to follow his sister. Alya wanted to watch tv so my mum turned her back to turn it on and find Animal Planet. The next thing she knew, she heard an almighty crash and turned around to find Dan-Dan’s head stuck in the table leg-frame and surrounded by a sea of glass shards.

While sitting in the walker, he had apparently tugged on the table leg and it fell towards him. The glass top missed his head and broke against the stairs but he somehow got stuck in the table’s framework. Thank Allah.

He started bawling. Alya started bawling. I think my mum cried out of shock & relief. She had to call my aunt & uncle to help clean the mess up as she didn’t dare to leave the kids.

Dan-Dan emerged with just a few scratches and cheeky as ever.

That was not the end though. Later that night, he was crawling & trying to reach the phone that was placed on our tv bench. He started to melonjak-lonjak and before I could put a top to it, ended up bumping his head. Resulted in a neat lil blue benjol over his right eyebrow to accompany the scratch over his left eyebrow from the earlier misadventure. Man, you really cannot take your eyes off this dude for a second.

I don’t wanna be the over-protective mother who’s constantly hovering, all afraid of something, anything happening to her kid. That’s no way to live and that’s no way for my kids to live either. I guess I have to find the right mix of protectiveness and letting them do their own thing and learning from it.

Tears

My kids cry a lot. They scream quite a fair bit too and man, can they project those voices. So much so that our front door and windows remain closed most of the time. Yes, yes, kids need fresh air and all but I think avoiding my neighbours calling the cops for suspected child abuse is paramount.

I don’t think my kids are unhappy or not thriving. We have a good time hanging out, with Alya babbling away and Aidan trying to climb everything he can (sister included). He’s extremely interested in eating, you can’t wave around a piece of food near him without him grabbing your hand, chomping down and gumming it furiously. Alya, as usual, seems to survive mainly on formula milk and air. This is occasionally punctutated by rice (a total of 5 spoonfuls at best), bread and whatever else we’re having. Since she spends quite a lot of time with my in-laws, I noticed that they indulge her with ice cream (‘cem’). Which creates a problem when she comes home and starts asking for it.

I think my kids are hitting their crying phase at exactly the same time. I mean, they used to be a lot more quiet. Alya’s at that stage where the word ‘No’ and ‘Kejap’ means nothing and everything seems to end in tears. Play play play, melalak. Whine whine whine, melalak. Demand demand demand, melalak. Typical toddler behaviour? She’s even started experimenting with tantrums by throwing things and thrashing about on the floor. The funny thing is, she will carefully lower herself on the floor first before thrashing about. Auta je lebih…

I usually just look at her blankly or quietly ask her to kemas, which will infuriate her more. K is not as patient as he’ll usually scold or give her a smack on the bottom. Once I feel she’s stopped crying cos of anger or frustration and just for the sake of it, I’ll start pacifying her and point out what she did wrong. Doesn’t always work but I figure I should teach her what’s wrong and reinforce that slowly.

Aidan seems to be very attached to me. He plays happily when I’m around but as soon as I’m out of sight, starts to whine before graduating to full-blown screaming. Even if K is there cajoling him to play, he would still cry and crawl around looking for me. I can’t really do my chores properly unless he’s napping (so the house is constantly a disaster area) and he hates the playpen/cot and the carrier, so those options are off the list. I tried driving alone with him once from the in-laws’ place while K drove his car with Alya. What is usually a 45-min journey took me half an hour more, with 2 stops on the emergency lane. No toy or song in the whole world calmed him down unless he was taken out of the carrier. He basically cried and squirmed around until he threw up. So now, he usually sits on my lap in the backseat where he’ll stand and jump up & down. I know it’s totally dangerous but he absolutely hates to be confined or tied down. I wonder if we should try him on Alya’s car seat.. How ah?

Frazzled is an understatement..

I cannot...

… get a full night’s sleep without having to wake up in the middle of the night to prepare milk or do some forgotten household chore. My kids will usually tag-team me, it’s like they planned it out. One will wake up first and just as I am crawling back into bed, another ‘siren’ will start. My neighbours probably think I’m some madwoman for hanging up my clothes or mopping the house at 2am.

… leave the room without Aidan howling and Alya following me. I have to be super quick using the bathroom to minimize the cacophony of Aidan crying & Alya whining “Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!” while banging on the door. They stop as soon as I open the door, grinning away.. Aiyo, tak senang betul..

Little & Large

… read without Aidan trying to grab the magazine or newspaper (no time for books!). He’s utterly fascinated watching people flip the pages and gets so geram if he gets his hands on it that he’ll start ripping it up.

… resist buying girly clothes for Alya. My practical side tells me to buy stuff that can be passed down to Dan-dan (as my mother puts it, mummy kedekut) but really, how can you say no to pink dresses?

… take my eyes off Dan-dan. Since he has learned how to crawl and pull himself up (yep, at 6 months old!!), I have to constantly pull him away from stuff and guard behind him when he stands holding on to the sofa edges.


… open any packet or plastic bag without Alya declaring “Nak nak nak!” and Dan-dan craning his neck to get a better look.

… let Dan-dan loose if his sister is napping. He’d pounce right on that mass of hair like a playful kitty and start tugging. His current favourite activity is to climb all over his sister in an attempt to grab her hair, causing the poor kerempeng girl to topple over and cry, while he sits on her giggling away all happy playing with his sister, blissfully unaware that he’s a lot more solidly built and weighs only 1.5kg less.

Can't a guy climb the sofa in peace around here?

Look mummy, I found a new way to play the piano!