The 4th coming .....

It's been decided. Mommy will be getting herself admitted on the 19th November 2009 to prepare for "the 4th coming"! We do not know whether she would beat the Obstetrician to it as every delivery has been unique. Now, where is that book for baby names?

Showers in the alley

I had a pleasant return trip from Bangkok in an Airbus A320 flight last Tuesday. It was a surprise how I was again seated with the same team member when we came from Kuala Lumpur. After our lunch, we had in-flight entertainment by a little girl seated just in front. She was singing all the nursery rhymes while we were wondering how come not much has changed from our kiddy days.

Just as soon as the cabin crew swept by to collect the trays, there was a shower of clear liquid rushing in different directions. Just as I have suspected the girl's little brother was having his diapers changed. His mother was frantically trying to clean up the seats and the hair of adjacent passengers. Reminded me of Benedict when he was the same age. Funny, nobody thought about using a disinfectant?

The Celcom poser

Yesterday, I thought Grandma was kidding when she mentioned to me that she couldn't reach Grandpa while shopping at Midvalley Megamall. She was frantically searching for him as she had finished buying groceries from Carrefour and wanted to go home. At lunch time I tried calling Mom but she was not reacheable. I tried calling Grandma again and that couldn't work as well. I tried calling the customer service number of the telco network, Celcom and the 1-300 numbers and those didn't work as well. My clients called my office line to inform me that they have been trying to call me all morning and they couldn't get through. I missed the call Clarissa usually calls me in the evening.

I started wondering why I got the whole family to subscribe under one plan and one network. I don't take the lame excuse they gave on the the Star. You mean only this festive season everyone started using their cellular phones?

Looking forward to the Perodua 7 Seater

Mom and I have some difficulty getting Clarissa (6 yrs), Christa (4 yrs) and Benedict (2 yrs) into the car with our Domestic helper. It's more obvious when we have placed the toddler seat and 2 child booster seats. Come mid-November 2009, we will have another addition with the arrival of our new baby. This would mean we would have to get a 7-seater or travel in two cars.

I heard word from an friend that the Perodua MPV (currently called by its Perodua D46T codename) based on the Toyota Passo Sette will be launched in late October 2009. Maybe this would be a car we would look at!

Reasoning with children - possible or impossible?

I tried this new approach with Clarissa and Christa last night. We had a short discussion after dinner after which I had a 2 minute 'sharing'. Usually it would be quite difficult to get the elder girl (Clarissa) to get out of bed in the morning. She would also refuse to finish her milk as she 'hated' the taste of it after being exposed to 'adult' foods. After telling her the reasons why we wanted her to comply, she seemed to understand. Christa nodded her head in agreement just to rub salt into the wound.

It seemed to have worked as Clarissa was the first to get out of bed and the first to put on her shoes and head to the car. As usual, Christa would take the front seats and we had to move Clarissa back. She didn't throw up a fuss. Was it the reasoning which worked or the movie we had last night?

Malayan Tiger swimming for the kids!

There are days that you just feel lucky. We felt just that last weekend when the Malayan Tiger decided to take a dip into the pool as we were watching him. He was trying to attract our attention! Soon after he was satisfied with the cooling-off session that he came out totally drenched. Aren't you glad you behaved in the zoo, children?

Touching the ceiling!

I was busy preparing for a lecture when Christa decided that I was to accompany her for her usual toilet visit. "I want to pooh-pooh!", she said. I just dropped her at the toilet entrance and left her on her own. As usual, she would insist that I was to stand there until she finished her business.

I took some time to stretch and accidentally touched the low ceiling. Upon seeing that, she got off the toilet bowl and wanted to touch the ceiling too. "But you only passed urine. Finish the job and I will let you touch the ceiling", I said. It was a good deal I suppose. She quickly got back to 'work' and within seconds, she emptied her bowel.

As a form of reward, she was carried up 5 times to touch the ceiling. That left her smiling with glee. "I touched the ceiling!"