This month, Huaihao experienced COVID, he had very high fever for close to 3 days and sore throat, his face red hot and ear too. And was feeling the chills.

Administered Panadol but to no effect, once the medication subsided, the fever raged. Until Huaihao wanted to give it up and stick to essential oils. And after a capsule of thyme, oregano, frankincense, lemon and peppermint the fever got kicked away the next morning.

And he got well again, the fever, headache and sore throat, disappeared without a trace. It is now that he tested positive with a faint line.

When Huaihao got sick, the daddy did not do anything—he did not even call to ask about huaihao when the little one was down with high fever, much less talk about helping with anything else. And he explained it was because Huaihao did not do his best or heed his advice to take care of himself. I got the 2 men to the table to thrash things out and Huaihao cried to say daddy’s words hurt him.

To which the dad said, “so don’t you think it hurt me too to see you are spoiling yourself away? “

Huaihao’s getting sick was an opportunity for us all to try out something new, but that did not happen. How can we break out of this ?

Recounting the month, this was Huaihao and Qinzhi staycay-ing at Ah yi’s and grandpa’s when dad and mom went to Chiangmai, and now, writing about it feels like a long time back. Grandpa took you and Qinzhi for McDonald’s and Ya Kun and shopped for groceries and cooked you dinner.

Ah yi got 2 hoodies.

Then when we came back, we went back to walking exploring and eating

One morning, Huaihao woke up saying he has a tummy ache and refused to go to school. We ended up taking Huaihao for a walk and having vegetarian bee hoon before hitting the furniture stores, then back to redhill market for his favourite pork chop rice.

When daddy restricted the use of the computer because Huaihao was so addicted to Roblux and couldn’t stop. This was what Huaihao did, he made bow and arrows that really worked.

And he completed it with a demonstration of how to use the tools he created. And putting forward his best smile for me.

This was him reading a paragraph of chinese as agreed with his dad. And huaihao got carried like a baby to bed at bedtime. He enjoyed it, these close enough precious moments with his dad.

On this public holiday, I took the kids out for a dental appointment before heading out lunch at Ootoya. Huaihao had such an appetite he had 2 bowls of rice and more from Qinzhi’s bento set!

And this day after school, i decided to take Huaihao out for some bonding over lunch since Qinzhi is back late. I let him choose what he wanted to have and we settled at Fish & Chips

Recently, the school sent a letter to inform us that kids will be having recess in class, and they were all given a lunch box, so we agreed that mommy will prepare food for Huaihao for recess so that he eats healthily.

On another occasion we brought the kids out for Qinzhi’s invisalign first dental appointment and then had Pizza Express

But at this point in time, Huaihao is getting dishonest about the playtime he gets on the computer screen. He continues to play beyond the agreed time and gets into unhappiness with the dad who tries to levy a punishment and Huaihao continues to argue his way out being unrepentant about his wrong

Asked Huaihao for a raindrop for me and he used the Valor pen and drew this on my back

And this is Huaihao after school. He finally had his CCA going and did track and field. He ran 3 rounds around school and appeared home with this sun roasted face.

Had muscle ache and refused to school the next day. Until I presented the advantages and disadvantages before him and he finally rushed to school at 720am.

He agreed to be back on his own and wrote this nice little note.

And this is what he did for spelling. Been difficult to get him to learn spelling and when he finally did, he did

Bedtime with HuaiHao is always lovely . He spews out things that are just what I needed to hear, so much divinity in there.

He’s just come home from my nanny’s. And he said he refused pocket money given to him by my nanny.

Me: Po po wanted to give you some pocket money. So why do you not take it?

HuaiHao: She should spend it on herself , she doesn’t owe me anything. In fact I owe her something

Me: like what?

HuaiHao: she took care of me for many years so I told her 我不要你自己拿

I asked HuaiHao how I can heal the keloids

And he says just pray

With my hands in his, he prayed with me: “ dear god pls make the keloids heal faster. Thank you for your understanding and help. It’s that simple.”

On another night, we chat.

And HuaiHao said, “ papa’s love is like a secret agent. Strict . It’s like he doesn’t say but you can feel it.”

And before I headed out I asked him to pray with me.

That was a really beautiful moment

I followed him as he clasped his hands in prayer

“ dear Buddha, dear all buddhas, please bless mommy with all of your blessings for the keloids to be gone in a split second. Thank you “

On yet another , we were discussing a disagreement we had earlier on

Me: So what did you learn from this?

HuaiHao: Do I still remember it?

Me: 🤔

HuaiHao: It’s so good to sleep without a care. Why do you even want to go back?