Backfired

"Its all your fault!" I pointed to my belly.


"What?" Joel and Ethaniel turned.


Streaks of stretch marks doubled after 2 pregnancies. Its fun to be able to blame the children for something ;-)


"I used to have a stomach like yours, you know?" I stared at his belly enviously.


"No wonder you don't wear bikini" said Joel as if enlightenment has come to him, at last. Actually there are more reasons than stretchmarks that makes me stay away from bikinis... but I should not elaborate.


Ethaniel came over and touched. I thought he was interested to see the ordeal I had to live with... instead...


"Hey Koh Koh, you see, it moves like a blubber. Mummy stomach moves so much when I poke it. Hahaha", Ethaniel was doubling over with laughter.


This is what I call.... Backfired.

Swimming & Having Fun

On 27 July, Joel had his 2nd leg of competition which was organised by Milo. This time round, they held it in Seremban. It was nice. I have not been to Seremban since the death of my maternal Grandmother. That was 13 years ago. Yes, that long ago. I was 2 months pregnant with Joel.


It has this bitter sweet memory.


When my maternal Grandmother was alive, our family would visit her in Mantin (30 mins away from Seremban, I think) and then at times come to Seremban to visit other relatives. Incidentally, Grandmother was hospitalised in the General Hospital where she passed away. Sigh. I do love that sweet, gentle and frail woman. Gutsy too!


Let's get a little distracted and talk about Grandmother.... Just recently, my Mother told me that when Grandmother had aches in her body - like most 90+ years old women do, she would ask neighboring children to do a quick 'guasa' (scraping her body using a clay spoon. A traditional Chinese therapy) on her back. When done, she would reward the child with 50 cents. That tells how both innovative and generous she is. That's my Grandmother.


Anyway. Back to topic.


Where was I?


Joel's competitions were back stroke 50m, Butterfly 50m, Freestyle 50m & 100m and Breaststroke 50m & 100m. He did pretty well and made better time than during training days. So, he was pretty pleased with himself and I was definitely proud of him.


The water in the swimming pool was freezing. Having to train at 7am in the morning didn't help. On the 2nd day, he might have gotten a chill which gave him a fever but yet, he persevered and didn't pull out from the competition. What a good lesson on perseverance.


I never knew being a parent of a swimmer took so much more perseverance. From 7am till 6pm, all we do is hang around waiting for your child's turn to swim - which does not last more than 5 minutes in total. So, there is just so much thing one can do... chatting, reading, game boy and some more chatting and some more reading...


After each competition, they are to continue their swim in another pool, so, his fellow swimmers were playing around pushing each other around the pool. I saw that and started taking photos. It was so funny seeing them having some fun amidst some serious competition.


Since Joel was about 10 years old, I had trained him to be able to cope with 'pranks'. After all, we live in a world full of 'jokers' and cruel children. So, he does need to survive and not get offended all the time.

Joel's friend almost pushed him in

Pushing another boy in

This bunch of girls and boys had heaps of fun. Nice to see that young boys and girls can play together and not be shy

Joel looking tired

After the children were playing 'pushing' into the pool for almost 5 mins. Suddenly, one of the parent came over and reprimanded her daughter and told her to stop! I felt a little embarassed. There I was condoning it - so shameful *sheepish smile*. Lighten up, Mum!

Monkeys

Ethaniel and Daddy was chatting away....


Daddy: So, when you were in the car today, what did you see along the way?


Ethaniel: Monkeys.


Daddy: Really? Monkeys.


I had an urgent urge to add some remarks.


Me: Yeah. There were 2 monkeys in the car too (trying to imply Ethaniel and Joel).


Without missing a beat.


Ethaniel: Yes. And its Mummy and Koh Koh (Older brother in Chinese)


*Me laughing away*


Such a quick witted boy.


My son, obviously.

Another Near Miss!

*screams*


"Mom!"


"Mom!"


I saw Ethaniel screaming hysterically and crying while lifting up his t-shirt.


I saw patches of white on his stomach and soon discovered that while Joel was pouring some hot water into a cup, the kettle's cover flew open and the boiling hot water landed on Ethaniel and his stomach.


I scrambled to get some aloe vera which I usually have in hand due to my constant usage of it for vanity purposes. I cut away the skin of the aloe vera leaf and made a paste to put on Ethaniel's wounds. The wound was as large as the palm of my hands. Due to the pain, I was not able to put whole pieces on it, so, I squeezed the gel onto the wound and summon Joel to get Paracetamol as a pain killer for this little boy who was in obvious excruciating pain.


It was a daunting sight.


He was brave.


After 10 mins, he was still in a lot of pain, so we decided to take him to the Emergency Ward of Sime Darby Medical Centre in Subang Jaya (used to be known as SJMC). Arriving at the hospital, I could see people in face mask. H1N1. What a place to be at 12.10am.


Ethaniel was wheeled in. After watching ER on TV, one tend to have a distorted expectations of having doctors and nurses running to you when you enter the emergency door. To summarise it, it was a disappointing experience. For a burn case anyway. Was not dramatic at all.


The doctor ordered the nurse to give Ethaniel some paracetamol through the anus. There is name for that medication, but trust me to forget that scientific name. I thought they were going to give him an injection. So, imagine me staring at him for another 25 mins in excruciating pain. Why do someone wants to go to the Emergency if not to have immediate cure. Anyway. After collating enough information, I realised that once the painkiller kicks in, the nurse will wash his wounds with saline and apply a cream.


OK, OK, call me a skeptic but I could easily have done that at home. Obviously my ignorance in how hospitals treat burn patients was a wasted trip and 1.5 hours of wasted time. The aloe vera which I used to treat him was a much much better way. It heals the wound naturally and as I observed it, the scalded flesh was from inflamed red to pink and slowly looking less scary. I use it when I get oil splashes during my cooking sessions too. It works perfectly and leaves no scars.


Of course, for Ethaniel's case it was more serious, his scalded stomach caused the skin to peel showing pink flesh. Eeewww.... Poor boy. Anyway, Thank God it wasn't his face or eyes.


After reaching home at 1.30am, I took more aloe vera, de-skinned it, laid it on the wounds, covered it with gauze and taped it up.The next morning, I took out his patch and saw that the wound was healing nicely. This aloe vera work wonders! And not forgetting to thank Ethaniel's guardian angel for taking care of him again after the drowning and "sand-in-eye" episode (for those who read the blog post which I took out)


I wonder if the guardian angel is standing beside God complaining of all the hard work he has been putting in for the last month. Hmm....

Have you seen a cuter or more adorable smile? Bet you never.