Xavier With His Own Ez-Link Card

Xavier has always been excited about MRT rides. He actually prefers riding on the MRT to sitting in my car. So you can imagine his excitement when we finally got him his very own Ez-Link card.

Currently 90cm is the height limit a child can travel on the MRT for free. Above that and you would be required to pay the kid's fare. The card just makes life easier as we do not need to go to the fare machine to buy a single trip card for each trip.

The process to apply for the card is fairly painless. Just need to note your child's birth certificate number as you need to complete a form at the ticketing counter. However, I do hope SMRT revised this height measurement as kids nowadays are so much taller. In fact, I would propose to only charge kids above age 5 since that is the age kids go to K1 (kindergarten 1). All kids below that should travel for free.

A Little Trip to Changi Airport

Recently bought the boys to Changi Airport to check out the Kinetic Rain. But before that we had some fun with the Millionaire Life 3D illusion by Kurt Wenner.

Lucas doing the Money Run

The 3D illusion looks so real and we had some fun time taking photos. We headed to Terminal 1 to marvel at the World's Largest Kinetic art display.

 

Its a massive art display of 1,216 water droplet shaped metals dancing in synchronised flowing manner creating beautifully soothing movements. Its so therapeutic just watching them dance.
Changi airport is fast becoming an alternative place to bring family to for food, play or just to run around in the massive space.

Xavier's First Love Bite

Xavier got his first love bite, with much tears and crying. It was given to him by his beloved brother Lucas, with fiery love.

Bruised Lee Is Back

This weekend would be one that Xavier will remember for a very long time. He got a big buluku (swallen bruise) on his head.

We still had no idea what happen. I was in the restroom and Lilian walked away to get a new bedsheet. 5 seconds later she heard a loud thump and Xavier came crying toward her with a big bruised on his head.

I used ice to reduce the swelling and applied Zam-buk after that. The swelling was gone by the next morning. What's left is a blue-black mark on this forehead. We also notice a red mark just at the corner of his right eye. He is lucky he didn't hurt his eye, miss by a cm or two.

We still do not know how it happened though. Xavier says he fell backwards. But with a bruise in front? Strange. Lilian's take on the incident: Watching over the boys is more important...Chores can WAIT!

New Word Of The Week: Trimethylaminuria

Someone have not been smelling like a baby. In fact, Lucas smelled like a fish.

Photo from Photos8.org

Recently when we pick up Lucas from his infant care center, we were greet by a "fish head". His head smelled like its been coated with Cod Liver Oil. At first I thought maybe cause he perspire alot, and he does. His teacher says that because we didn't provide shampoo for Lucas (we gave them the Johnson and Johnson Top to Toe shower gel), hence it didn't clean his head well.

So Lilian went to buy the most fruity smelling shampoo for Lucas. Oh he smell real fruity after shower. But by bedtime, his head was smelling like a fish again. And so I goggled and the word Trimethylaminuria comes out.

According to Wiki, Trimethylaminuria, also known as fish odor syndrome is an incurable metabolic disorder. Basically the body cannot break down trimethylamine present in certain food and so you end up smelling like a fish your whole life. We were going to seek clarification from his PD on the next visit but I could not help feeling sad for Lucas.

Lilian didn't believe Lucas had this condition and stick to the belief that the center didn't clean him well enough. Strangely, Lucas didn't smell like a fish on weekend. So Monday, Lilian discussed with his teachers about it and from then on, he didn't smell like a fish anymore. Safe to say now it was overreaction by me from the overloaded information from Goggle.

We still do not know how did Lucas get that smell in the first place. Could be his drool during his sleep after his fish porridge lunch that "flow" to his head. But we now know there is such a medical condition that exist so the next time someone beside you smell like a fish, please keep that condition in mind and be more sensitive to their feelings.

The Undeletable Cyberspace

The recent Amy event have re-enforced the reality that delete does not exist in cyberspace.

Once something is posted/uploaded and seen, whether its on forums, twitter, facebook, blogs, etc, it can be reproduced and will stay in cyberspace. It might fade with time and eventually forgotten but making it disappear totally is very near impossible.

Hence it is up to each individual one of us to be responsible for what we share and post. There is a price for sharing and that is once shared, you lost control of it and cannot take back.

Many a times we do not realise the danger of sharing too much. A simple and innocent example is like sharing your kid's birthday. We as parent post and share photos and blog post to celebrate the joy. But Date Of Birth is one of the questions banks use to "authenticate" their customers who calls in. So years down the road, this information might still be lingering in cyberspace. Did we just do a dis-service to our kid and make his bank access more vulnerable? Food for thoughts.

On the contrary, I just set up a twitter account after so many years. Look for me @roamingglass.