Meal time is war time everyday, with the boys whining, fighting, spilling drinks, etc. Its the time of the day we want to get over and done with, thus we would feed them quickly, sometimes bribed them with sweets and other times threatened with punishments.

- My mum can whipped up a banquet in an afternoon -

When I was young, family dinners, especially on weekends, were grand occasions where my parents along with grandma, uncles, aunts, whom lived under the same roof, tucked into the sumptious home-cooked food served on a big round table for eight. We chatted, laughed, discussed and argued about anything under the sun. As a child, amidst all the interesting juicy gossips about neighbours and relatives, I picked up life lessons, traditions and values. We did not realise it then, but our family were bonding at dinner time in a way that wasn’t possible during the course of an average day.

I wanted to introduce the family dinner hour. Since last week, I make it a point to set a side time to have dinner with the boys. Everyone helps to lay the table and light the candles. The boys feed themselves (never mind the mess!) and while we leisurely tuck into our food, we take turns to relate the days happenings.  

Hang talks briefly about school while Xiang reports his behaviour. Everyday for the past week, Xiang would say, ‘Today, I  kick/never kick my friends. So I sit/ never sit on the Naughty Chair’.

We need more practise. I tried to model to the boys by sharing enthusiastically about work, the problems I face, the things that makes me happy and makes me sad. I am confident that soon, dinner time will be a lively hour where we learn about each other and from each other.

Yesterday, Xiang ran to me and enthusiastically requested, “Lets have dinner and talk about work and school, okie!?” 

Lets say, it’s a start.

Having a doting father

who

lavishes us with

Love

Care

and Attention

is a Blessing.

This few weeks have been trying.

Hang was having difficulty adjusting to his dentures initially. He took them out often. Ulcers started to develop on the third day. “You still have to put them on even if it hurts,” I screamed! I was impatient, frustrated and losing confidence believing that the dentures were badly made.

Help poured in over the weekend. My sis arranged for Uncle Andrew and his daughter to take a look at Hang’s dentures when we were at her place for lunch. They assured us that the dentures were very well made. During the weekend, Uncle Ngoi travelled all the way from Jurong to visit Hang and gave us the same assurance. Leanne, who’s grandson is also affected by HED called long distance from Perth to share her experiences. And of course the encouraging comments from all of you warmed our hearts.

Hang’s guradian angels must be looking after him for he adjusted very quickly thereafter. The pain was bearable even though the ulcers had not healed. He was willing to put the dentures on for a good part of the day, only taking them out during meals (Yes! He still needs to practice eating with his dentures) and bedtime. On Monday, he had fun showing his removable teeth to his friends at school. During the week, his speech improved eliminating the need for theraphy. And somehow he found a way to stop the lower dentures from ‘floating’ and flying out! 

Thus, the only challenge left is to chew with this set of ‘magic teeth’ as Xiang enviously calls them.  

*****

Xuan came next in line. He has always been small weighing merely 2.6kg at birth. He has a small appetite and comsumes only 2oz – 3oz of milk per feed, when he should be taking at least 6oz to 7oz. I noticed that he has not grown much. We weighed him and plot his weight against the growth chart. I was frantic when it revealed that he had dipped from 25 percentile to less than 5 percentile!

That weekend, I was again consumed by uncertainty and fear. The first sign that something was wrong with Hang was when his fail to thrive.

“Is my baby alright?”

I brought him to the pediatrician on Monday. Dr Yong says that there is no cause for concern as Xuan is growing fine, reaching his milestones. Thus, that evening, our prince was once again in our embraces, as we savour every little moments with our baby who is growing quicky by the day.

*****

And finally, its Xiang, who is down with viral fever causing his temperature to fluctuates, peaking at 40.3 degrees! I’ve  sleepless nights, waking up every other hour to check his temperature, to feed him his medications and to sponge him.

In a nutshell,

This is

Parenthood.