Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

Cayson’s QOTD: “ You cannot scold me , I’m a kid.” “ 静静有条！” Cayson exclaimed when trying to ask Cayen to keep quiet at night. (It’s actually 井井有条） He probably declared after he wiped the table, “干干净净”. I was impressed and asked him where he learned it from. He said Berries. Then he asked me earnestly again if I had gone to Berries when I was a kid.  Recent other chats Cayen:  What is the tax? 7%?  Me: Yes  Cayen: So for every $100, I have to pay $7. Oh then I will just buy $50 so I never need to pay the tax Me: No, it doesn’t work that way, it’s from first dollar onwards…  (For the rest of the whole night, he self entertained and made jokes about asking for 7% extra for everything) ———————————— Cayson’s meet the parents session  As usual, he got glowing comments about being a model student. In fact, he seemed to enjoy reading and learning and would even consult his good friend I in school when there’s words he doesn’t know how to read from the textbook. An...

Cayson likes to play chinese chess with Ah Po but he doesn’t like to lose. And Ah Po claims she often loses if she doesn’t wear her glasses. So one day after Cayson lost a few games, Ah Po’s glasses went missing ! Cayson had hidden it away .. only to return it the next day.  Ah Po was amused by how he could remember where he had hidden it and how he hates losing.  ——  I made an attempt to cook Japanese pasta and I threw in shreds of onions for the taste. Cayen picked them up one by one. I was frustrated and asked if he had an onion detector in mouth. He replied, “ I have a tongue”. Lol ! 

2020 started with a Big Bang (on the floor) for Cayen where he fractured his arm during basketball training. That meant 2 months plus of cast and repeated trip to the hospital for replacement of the bandage / cast. This also meant that he further ballooned from the 18kg in Jan 19 to the current 29kg given the lack of activity and continued appetite from his double plates of chicken rice/pasta and chicken patty during recess.  Albeit being restrained in his cast, he took part in the Maths Kangeroo competition which was held online this year where he scored a Gold and qualified for the Singapore International Maths Olympiad Challenge where he scored 1 individual bronze and 2 team bronze. Unfortunately, the lockdown meant that he has too much dosage of Youtube particularly minecraft / preston and he also learnt how to manuvoer the laptop (as a result of all those home based learning) to download more free games to play.  Thankfully he re-ignited his interest in internatioanl and ...

In a year of Covid19, time flies faster than ever. We had our second parent meet teacher Teams session recently. As usual, Cayson received glowing compliments for being a good boy in school and above average mandarin skills (amongst mostly expatriate friends haha). And I also learned that he has planning and patience as well. Here’s why.  Usually to start the day, he would have milk at home. Then on some days when he requests (since his school provides breakfast and we don’t want to waste), we would pack some small “fish” snacks or small piece of bread to bring to school. What we learned is that other kids may sometimes pack their own afternoon snack to school (though school provides). As Cayson also wants his own snacks during tea, he would ration what he brought for breakfast , and leave a tiny morsel behind for tea. Teacher observed it, was rather amused and asked him to finish the morsel during breakfast as it’s a real small piece to start with but he mustered all his willpower...

Cayson and Cayen were at the river safari last week with Godma. When they came back, there were all having some kind of leg pain. They eventually feel asleep  at 10pm  but getting them to wake wasn’t easy, especially for Cayson. When I dropped him off at school today, he didn’t want me to leave after the goodbye hug. In fact it got tighter and soon he started bawling. That’s very unlike him as he’s a very easy child to handle even in the mornings. Finally his teacher came back and carried him upstairs. Teacher was nice enough to send me a note 15 minutes later that he’s already gone and enjoying breakfast with his friends so I should not worry.  Apparently in late afternoon, he went to teacher and apologised to the teacher for crying. He told his teacher he was sorry he cried during morning drop off because he never slept well last night. What a wonderfully sensitive and self aware child he is at 4 years old!  —— On the other side, Ah Pa came back with freshly colour...

Cayson after tasting very sour blueberries... Cayson: Ah Pa, try some. Ah Pa tried it but it was a tad sour.  Cayson: Do you like it ? Ah Pa: Yes ...  Cayson: ok, you can have it. Haha..  —- Today, I was washing dishes and my hands are full.  Cayson: Ah Ma, can you cut me some oranges? Me: I don’t know how to Cayson: Oh, first you open the fridge. Then you go to the bottom, then you pick up the orange. Then you cut it into small pieces, so I will not dirty my shirt because I bathe already.  Whoa! He sure knows his facts very well where food is concerned. 

Cayson had his first dental visit 2 weeks ago to investigate a funny gap in his teeth. Unfortunately, it’s the start of a cavity so dentist advised that some filling might be needed but perhaps on another day so he doesn’t get completely traumatised. For a first trip, he was quite apprehensive for the initial minutes but he acclimatised shortly, after we let him play computer games to distract him.  And so here we are, 2 weeks later, for the filling and we hope it works else we would need to transfer to a specialist if he’s not cooperative. Dentist was trying to get him to endure the filling for 5 counts, 7 counts and 10 counts progressively and he did it somehow.  He’s so brave and cooperative (though I know he’s scared). Perhaps the free lego toy from last trip and the minecraft YouTube playing on screen now helped to distract him a bit as well. Kudos to the dentist who remembered his preferences from 2 weeks ago! The YouTube channel was set up for him before he even start ...