KK's 3rd Milk Teeth

Last night, KK lost his upper front tooth, making it his 3rd milk teeth to drop out. It had taken a long time since he'd lost his lower two teeth many months ago and I see many of his peers having almost all their milk teeth replaced. But I'm happy to let nature take its course. Recently one of the front teeth started becoming loose and occasionally I'll hear the boy complain when he'd bit on some food that caused the tooth to move and create pain in his gums.

A similar scenario happened yesterday and I see the tooth hanging by a thread to the gum. However, I lacked the courage to jerk it out for him. I remembered stories about parents in the old days who tie a string from the tooth to a door knob and then slamming the door to get the tooth out. I wonder how true they are. I definitely am too chicken to do that. Instead, I gave KK a tissue and asked him to dab at his blood from his gums. The next thing I know, the tooth dropped out with the tissue.

There's now a huge gap in his smile with one lonely front tooth left hanging. It won't be long, I know, before this one goes as well. The next step is what to do with the newly fallen tooth. I tested out his belief for "tooth fairies", asking if he'll like to keep it under his pillow that night and maybe the tooth fairy will give him $1 for it. KK asked for $1 millon instead. No way, I said. If it's such a good deal, I'll gladly lose some of my teeth too, I thought. Then the savvy businessman decided that for $1, it's not worth selling his precious tooth. He then gave it to me so the tooth fairy wouldn't take it away and asked me to safe-keep it instead for memory.

I noticed that KK is a sentimental person. He asked me if I'd kept his earlier 2 milk teeth (which I didn't) and he didn't allow me to donate some of XX's baby clothings away.

Pass The Age of Cute

2 weeks has passed since KK's 8th birthday and I've yet to blog about it. See the previous post for the reason why it became 2nd priority. But I better pull up my socks and show something for the folks back in S'pore before he turns 9!!

For this year, it was predetermined that KK's not gonna have a big celebration. Last year he's had his birthday celebrated with style at an indoor playground surrounded by 15 kiddo friends. This year, we celebrated in a low key manner. That is, bringing him out to eat his favourite food and doing some fun activities. On the last day of his 7th year, we brought him to play laser tag and then to his favourite Vietnamese place for "salted fried chicken". But when he was there, he ordered a plate of noodles instead. Since there were a few other friends together, I decided to bring a cake for him to blow his candles. I baked the cake as per usual tradition since we moved to Oz and yup, he chose chocolate AGAIN. That boy is consistently in love with chocolate.

On his actual birthday, it happened to be a school holiday as all the teachers had to go for training. How lucky for him! Hubby came back earlier and we took them swimming. After that, we went for dinner at a restaurant of his choice. The birthday boy chose Red Rooster, a fast food chain selling charcoal chicken. Of all places!! But since it was his birthday, we willingly went along. I don't find it fantastic, but at least he enjoyed it. After dinner, we went for bowling and some arcade games. XX had fun pushing off the ball off a ramp specially designed for kids. The lane for KK also had railings so that he NEVER went off course and always hit something. Great for the morale, but not too successful in training them to aim, I must say.









One of the most memorable thing was we found $10 on the street as we walked out of Red Rooster towards the car park. I said it was his 'lucky money' and asked him to keep it. At the bowling place, KK generously gave it back to me and offered to pay for the bowling session. I kind of feel comforted that he seemed to have grown more sensible.







On that day he turned 8, there was a memorable comment that KK made which made me realise how he had reached another stage of his life. XX made a remark in the car and I commented to Hubby, "So cute..." Unexpectedly, KK blurted, "Orrh, how come I'M not cute anymore!?" I laughed but also realised that yeah, we have not used the word "cute" to describe KK for the longest time. With this birthday, KK has officially passed the age of 'cute'.







Somehow as they get older and their limbs grow longer, they are not so cuddly and their actions are not as ticklish. We still love KK as much but perhaps our interactions with him has gone sterner. He is at this age where talking back is common and teaching him right from wrong, setting good habits and cultivating positive attitudes becomes more important than showing cuddly affections. Like a plant, we can't keep our children under the protection of the nursery forever. To fully develop, they have to move out one day and be in the full glare of the sun, wind and cold. In the real world, if his roots are not deep and the stem is not strong, he will not survive, let alone thrive. While in my care, I hope he has the right foundation and is set straight from the beginning. Even if it means being tied to a pole and thrimmed to size. And of course, coupled with consistent watering of love and affection.

Yummylicious - XX licking off the pot of chocolate frosting

The Search Continues

For the past weeks, my life has revolved around real estate. Images of various properties swirl around inside my head before I sleep and the topic of houses dominates our dinner conversations. In the day, I spend a lot of time in front of the computer, touring real estate websites and studying Google maps. I speak more to real estate agents than my friends and we have met every single agent of Barry Plant (Point Cook). In between maintaining our usual routine and the daily rounds of delivering KK to school and collecting him, I even went to inspect a few worthy properties alone with XX.

We have still yet to secure our future home although we have made several offers. Our plans also keep changing. We are now looking at 2 other suburbs which are further away but has more value (in terms of the price). We also considered buying land and building. I've even spoken to one builder who offers 7-star energy efficient homes. That sounds very appealing to us - double glazed windows, rain water tank system (to flush the toilets), solar energy water heating system etc. However, I had concerns for the location of the land and am not too eager to embrace having to deal with conntracters and all the minor details of building. I've heard horror stories about builders from some of my friends' experiences and read some nasty complaints about them at online forums. It is so much easier to just buy an established home and often it has more value too.

Many homes that we have visited, especially those that are owner-occupied, has got landscaped gardens, decked alfresco area and pergolas. Some even have outdoor spas and many homes have got their own personal children's playground in the backyard, complete with playhouse, swings and slides! Australian children are so lucky! Basically, with a well-maintained home, you can just move in and start living. The problem is finding one that you like.

Of so many houses that we've seen, I will like some aspect of the home but not others. Like I'll like the timber flooring but the bedrooms are small or we love the granite kitchen top but the layout out the house is weird. I guess most importantly for us is the price and location. If the price is attractive, I guess I can live with a few imperfections and make improvements later on. But often, I find I can't justify the price with the location/quality of the house. So, the search continues......

I managed to reclaim some of my sanity last weekend. After an afternoon of just 4 inspections, we had a feast of Domino pizzas at a friend's place on Saturday night. On Sunday, we didn't do a single house inspection and instead spent our time with 2 groups of friends. First, to lunch at a restaurant in Hawthorn selling Malaysian hawker fare. My Hakka style bork belly noodles was delicious, abeit a little too salty. The teh tarik was piping hot and milky but too sweet. At night, it was Mee Siam time. Catching up with friends is always rejuvenating. And they have shared their opinions, advice and stories regarding house hunting which has been so useful for us first-time home buyers.

I have a few other groups of friends whom I really want to meet up as well. It's gonna be challenging given our weekend schedule of inspections but I'll have to manage. Though I want to get the house issue settled soon and move on, I really shouldn't be rushing. We are not in a hurry to move out of our current place so we should take our time to find the right one.