Crying for Barnabas

Belle came to me while I was still lying down on the bed.

“Daddy, where’s Barnabas?” – B
“He go for a walk” – D
“But what if a man catches him?” – B
“You lah, don’t want to take care of him” – D
“Daddy, where’s Barnabas?” – B
“He go for a walk, go shopping” – D
“Daddy, wake up lah, go find Barnabas” – B

“You go lah, you go walk and find Barnabas” – D
“But I very tired, walk so far” – B
“You go walk find Barnabas lah, if not people will catch him” – D

Belle started to cry.
“Daddy… you go find Barnabas lah”, B still sobbing.
“You go lah, you Barnabas sister, why didn’t you take care of him?” – D
Crying gets louder, “I tired, can’t walk far far find Barnabas. You go lah”

Hhehehe..until come out tears Belle cried for her brother. So caring for him. Haizzz…definitely not from the father’s trait.

Mo Siang - No scammer

Okay guys. If you are playing MoSiang and seen "starhawk", then you came to the right place. I am "starhawk" and this post is specifically for MoSiang players.

Most probably you are visiting this website is because you want to know more about me. You might want to know whether I am a scammer or not. Hahaha...that is okay because I too hates to be scammed by others.

Most of the time I will be selling Mosiang 380 points card. My selling price is 12M mosiang gold though this can be lower depending on the market. I would prefer if you could pay first the ms money (especially if you are trading for the first time with me) or pay half. Please let me have your handphone number for me to send the MS code.

I sell the cards because firstly, I want to use the ms gold, and secondly, I sell ms gold for RM to my customers.

I do hope that when you've read this post, you will know that I am not a scammer. My particulars are as below:

Name: starhawk or you can call me David Bong
Email: starhawk2u@gmail.com or davidbong2@gmail.com
Blogs that you can visit and please visit if you have time: The Music Inside Me Today (my other blog); and my wife's blog, 4 of them...links at my sidebar under the title "Their Mommy's Blog"

If ever you need to contact me, please call 012-2544606 (better sms than call). Or if you are in Melaka and wants to play Mosiang, come to Starhawk Internet Cafe at Batu Berendam, opposite Giant Hypermarket. I operate the CC, its a small CC.

I worked in the church before (Yes, I am a Christian) and now operate the CC business. I have a wonderful wife, the greatest wife on earth, and three wonderful children (2 beautiful daughters and a handsome son).

Okay...enough about myself. But if you want to know more, do leave your comments and I will answer it.

What I plan to do is to record my various transactions in Mosiang in this post.

So far these are the people in MS that I've traded the cards or buy ms gold from them.

1. "maxnws" - I bought ms gold from him and transfer RM through online banking Maybank. Hehehe...and he is looking for a girlfriend too. Please recommend to him if you know of any girl that is interested.

2. "KippY07y" - this guy who is also called Meng buys MS cards from me. A trusted buyer. He once hutang me one card but he still pays me back after a week plus. He fell sick at that time. He has another character.... oOSuperDancerOo...something like that but he sold it to others de.

3. "Pohun" - sold 2 cards to him so far. I haven't spoken to him on the phone yet. He has yet to trust me but hopefully that will change in due time.

4. Others that I've traded with are MrQQ, xxThanatosxx, MrHoe, (sorry, some names are not the exact names, I can't remember)

5. If you know some of these people/character, you can inquire from them about me
- Rozen
- Balcon
- TonyGohSE
- WuQingNvHai
- princ3Jonat3
- k0ruSakiIchig0 (my staff)
- tripelxxx (current owner)
- brokenleg (the Sarawakian)
- MaDong88
- Dayak87
- pacai89

Okaylah... I will edit the list whenever I do any tradings in MS. The above players are trustworthy and you can deal with them. I've known them and I believe that they would not scam you.

Updates -

21-12-2007 >> Sold one card to "Heavy" for a very good price 12M. He studied mechanical engineering and tried a few ways to use automatic mouse click for the game but to no success. His other characters are ImperialGuard and OrangeCountry.

22-12-2007 >> Sold another card to "Heavy" for 11M. He pays half...hehe...can trust me already. Lenglui1 still have not trust me yet coz he didn't read this post. Maybe will sell a card to him if he agrees to pay half first.

29-12-2007 >> Sold a card to XxSi3wM3ngxX for 12M. He has another ID called KippY07y.

30-12-2007 >> Sold another card to KippY07y for 12M. He hutang me 2M.

1-12008 >> Sold another card to Heavy.

I still got a lot of ms gold not yet sold to my customers. So I will stop selling cards for the time being unless I sms you. If you want to buy card from me...leave you handphone number and I'll let you know if I have the cards for sale again.

She will throw me out

Clarissa always does something that makes us want to discipline her. One of the ways we used to “threaten” her is by telling her that we would throw her out from the car. We actually did stop the car a few times and pretended to drag her out from the car. Well, that tactic works well and she would stop her mischief.

Lately she learned to say, “I don’t like you” from one of her cousin and we find it very irritating to hear her say that sentence always. Every time we tried to tell her of her wrongdoing, she will say that sentence. So I used the threat tactic on her telling her that I would throw her out from the car is I hear she says the sentence again. It works.

During dinner, I asked Clarissa whether she loves me. She kept quiet. Then I told her, “Clarissa, Daddy doesn’t like you”. Immediately a reply came out from her mouth, “Daddy, I will throw you”.

Hahahahaha….what else can I say. She learns from her daddy lah. Haizzz…

Mommy or Daddy?

My children crave their mummy's attention. Whenever they have some problems, they would cry and go to their mummy if she is around. Only when their mummy is not around, then they would turn to me. Haizzz....sometimes I do wish that they would come to me first instead of their mummy. Those times are rare but precious indeed. But can't blame them also. Whenever they fall down, I would not "sayang" them. They would look at me and knowing that it is no point for them to cry, they would stop crying and stand up and go back to what they are doing before that. Naturally they will know that it is no use to go to daddy. Better go to mummy. With Daddy they will learn to be independent, with mommy they will learn that they are loved.

Sweet 3 years old

Clarissa is now 3 years old. She is very active full of energy. However, when her energy level is depleted she will feel tired and sleepy. Once we gave her milk, she will be full of energy again and will want to go and play again.

She is very independent or at least want to do things all by herself. Of course we have to guide her at first but most of the things she will take the initiative to try out all by herself. And she will be angry if we want to help her. And when she realised that she can't do it all by herself, only then will she be willing to let us help her. Her size is still small and petite. Though she can be independent, she can be shy at times. If you look into her eyes, she will try and look away and smile sheepishly.

So far, I have yet to find out how to show her love. Her language of love is not Words so it is a bit difficult for me. Using words does not seems to work on her as effective as giving gifts or spending time. Will try and find time to speak her language of love.

He vomited on me

Barnabas, oh Barnabas. Why did you vomit on Daddy? Haiyo... all your kuey teow semi-digested with the smell of your stomach acid. All of it you vomited on Daddy's shirt and jeans. And we have to bear all of it for 10 minutes while Mummy drove us home. You know what oh Barnabas.

n spite of all that smell and "geli-ness", there is that feeling of love and care towards you. Daddy knows that you are not feeling well and Daddy is very sure that you are feeling at that time is worse that the smell and "geli-ness" that Daddy had to suffer. It has been some time since the last time somebody vomited on Daddy.

Hmmm... Daddy can't even remember the last incident. The vomit gives Daddy the feeling of being a Daddy again, loving you despite all the "trials" you gave. Daddy loves you Barnabas.

Outdoor boy

Barnabas is showing signs of being the adventurous boy. He does not like to stay inside the house. Whenever possible he would want to go out and play outside the house. He would explore the compound and play at the swing.

When his grandmother is outside, he would call out to her and want to be with her. His grandmother (as many grandmother would do) would carry him and they would spend the time together outside the house. His grandmother would be peeling the coconut leaves to make the broom and he would just play around there. He would explore the compound, picking up things, running here and there. When he grows up, I will need to teach him many outdoor skills like camping, climbing trees, hiking and also maybe martial art skills.

Three different eaters

It is nice to see the different personalities that God has given to my children. Yes, each one of them is unique and special. Even in the matter of eating preferences all my three children have different preferences.

Annabelle is more of the carnivor, loves to eat chicken meat. Clarissa however loves to eat rice only, not so much of meat. Barnabas, on the other hand loves to eat vegetables.

She needs affections

Another one thing I noticed about Annabelle is that she needs to be shown affection. Many times when I was around doing my things, she would just come and want to sit on my lap or lie down on my lap. She knows that I would cuddle her and embrace her and she would just enjoy it. The look at her face shows that she wants her daddy's love. And it is a joy just to shower her with affections. Once she has received the affection she needs she would go back to do her own things.

She needs encouragement

Annabelle has been a blessing to me since her birth. Yes, the other children too have been a blessing. Since Annabelle is the eldest, I first learned about parenting since her arrival. There are many trials and challenges being a new father but it has been rewarding. I enjoyed teaching Annabelle her new skills. She has been a cautious girl and still is. She is not so daring to try out new things but once she is encouraged by others she would give it a try. The easiest way to persuade her to do things is by words of encouragement or by words of challenge.

She is jealous

Last Sunday we went to church. During the altar call, Pastor Lee Neo asked the congregation to hold other people's hand for corporate prayer. Clarissa was with her mother at the mother's room at the back of the sanctuary. After the prayer, her mother told me that Clarissa cried when she saw me holding a lady's hand during the prayer. Hahaha...so cute to hear that.

Then when I asked her why she is jealous and cry, she said, "I want daddy". Wah...so strong her feelings for her daddy that holding hands in prayer is also not permissible.

She wants me

My daughter Clarissa seems to be attached to me. Everytime I want to hug my wife and if Clarissa sees us, she would cry. At first I thought that Clarissa does not want me to hug her mommy. After a few times, we realized that she actually do not want her mommy to hug me. Hahaha. Clarissa would cry and then ask me to hug her. After I hugged her she would stop crying. She wants me, her daddy is hers, not even her mommy can hug her daddy. Haizzzz...

Needing love

Annabelle small finger got bitten by an insect just now. We already asked her to sleep as it is already past her bedtime. She opened the room door and told me and her mommy that her finger is pain pain. Thinking that she is just trying to go out from the room and play, I told her to go back to sleep. After about 5 minutes she opened the room door again and said the same thing. Scolded her and asked her to go back to sleep again. About a minute later we heard her crying in the room.

Went in and while still crying she showed me her finger. I was afraid that she might have twisted her finger but thank God it was not the case. Brought her out from the room and applied some ointment on her finger. Immediately she quietened down. She also asked me to pray for her finger. In the room she seems so happy. I guess she wants attention from her parents more than the ointment. Now she is asleep.

Spare the rod spoils the child

The time has come for me to use the cane on Barnabas. No, not that I will simply cane him for my own enjoyment. No father will simply cane the son for fun. Only evil father do that.

Barnabas is almost 2 years old already. He understands a lot of things though he does not talk much. He learns and starts to imitate other people especially from his sisters. All the while the cane has not been used on him but he realised that being caned is not a good thing. He would be quiet when the sisters are being caned. But he also noticed that he can get away with doing "naughty" things without being caned. So the time has come for him to learn good habits and not to do naughty things. The cane will be his unconscious teacher, directing his thoughts and mind to behave properly.

The Girls are here!

Woke up this morning and as I turned around, I saw my two girls still sleeping in the room. Haiya.... looks like they can't wake up this morning and Mommy decided to let them sleep and skip school. The night before both of them slept late. Annabelle slept at 1am. Haiya...cannot like this every day lah. Now, they are disturbing me.

No Horse For Annabelle

We were at the beach this evening. We were thinking of letting Annabelle to sit on the horse. She has been asking about it. I guessed it was because she was a bit jealous of her younger sister Clarissa who bravely sat on a horse a few days ago. Since her mommy uploaded the video clip of Clarissa on the horse on the laptop, Clarissa has been watching that video clip again and again. Maybe Annabelle wants her video also on the laptop.

When we reached there, we could not find the horses. So we let the children play with the sand.

Fun Fair or Ache Fair

We went to the Fun Fair at Klebang Beach the other day. It is not a big Fun Fair but there was enough stalls to give children and adults a time of fun and excitement. Our first “fun” time was the Ferris Wheels. Since we (wife, 3 children and myself) are their first customers (they just started operating hour when we arrived) the operator let us be in the wheels for more than 10 rounds. I was wondering when it would stop. After we came out, my wife told me that she felt dizzy because of the ride. Belle then complains of stomachache.

So we stopped by at a clinic on the way back. The doctor that saw Annabelle gave a few tips on how to stop the stomachache and diarrhea. That night we bought young coconut water for Annabelle to drink.

Climbing toilet bowl

Annabelle can climb the toilet bowl by herself already. Today, as she wants to go and do her business in the toilet, she asked me accompany her. Looks like I have to do another shit watching. When we were in the toilet I grabbed her hand to help her climb. She pulled her hand away and told me that she can climb the toilet bowl all by herself. I smiled and just stand there. True to what she said, she managed to climb on the toilet bowl without my help.

I then went outside the toilet and do the shit watching. Prefers to do the shit watching outside the toilet as the smell of the shit could be very very smelly. Today's shit is dark brown and brown in colors. Washed her ass with water and soap and then watched her climbed down the toilet bowl all by herself. Praised her for her success in climbing up and down the toilet bowl all by herself. Now, my responsibilities would be lesser a bit.

Big appetite

He is hungry again. Barnabas is getting back his appetite. When he was down with fever, diarrhea and stomachache two weeks ago, his appetite went down. He hardly want to eat and the amount of food that he eats are little. I think it is because of stomach discomfort that he ate little. Now that he is healthy again, his appetite is really big.

Now, he cannot see other people eating. If he sees his mommy eating, he will immediately go over and ask for something to eat. And while eating and he sees his daddy eating some other food, he would then go to his daddy and still ask for some more food. Mind you, this happened even after he had his 6 ounces of milk. Hahaha...I think he wants to regain the weight that he lost when he was sick.

Shit watching

Being at home taking care of my three children gives me various adventures. One of it is shit watching. Everytime one of my children wants to go to the toilet, she would ask the daddy to follow along.

Daddy's responsibilities are firstly to ensure that the children climb safely on the toilet bowl. Secondly, it is to see whether the children is really shitting or just urinating. Thirdly, it is to monitor the "condition" of the shit, whether it is hard stool or watery, smelly or very very smelly and the colors of the shit. Fourthly, it is to wash the children's ass and ensure its cleanliness. And finally, to ensure the children climbed down safely from the toilet bowl. Such is the adventurous tasks of this daddy while shit watching.

Vending Machine

“Daddy, what is that?” Belle pointing to a vending machine outside the restaurant. She saw two small boys putting in coins into the machine and got a ball.

“That’s a vending machine” I answered. Silence. I turned and look at her. A puzzled look on her face. Obviously she does not understand the word “vending”. She looked at me looking for more explanation. My mind did a hurried browsing on my vocabularies store, searching for other words to explain to her. “Vending?” she asked again. She tried to register that word in her mind and associating it with the machine.

“Well, it is where you can get something from the machine when you put money inside it. If you want the toys or ball inside the vending machine box, you must pay by putting a coin first. Then the ball will come out and you will get the ball.” I tried to explain further, hoping that she would understand better.

“Oh…” she replied with a nod as though she understands what I said to her. I do hope she understands it or at least remember the word.

Deciding Where to Eat

We went out for dinner last night. As usual, we had to discuss on where to go. Yes, you read it right. Various factors will come up like these major factors:

1. What food the children can eat?
2. What food Michelle wants to eat?.
3. Where or which foodcourt/restaurant that caters to these two factors?
4. How much would the cost be?
5. Would Michelle's mother be able to look after the children or at least Barnabas?
6. Is there any other purpose in going out (e.g. need to buy household things).

Hahaha...after considering all these factors, we decided to go to Newton Foodcourt at Ujong Pasir. Send Barnabas to Michelle's mother and off we went for our dinner. Along the way we changed our mind and decided to eat at a sort off newly opened Chinese Western Food restaurant at Pulau Gadong. We ordered Fried Rice for the children, Fish & Chips for Michelle, Mushroom Soup, Seafood TomYam for myself and drinks. The TomYam is nice. The fish is not so fresh (got not fresh taste). All in all it was considered cheap for the four of us. Might go there again for the Tomyam. Then off we go to Tesco for our household shopping.

Looks like this is the pattern of determining where we will be having our meals. Six major factors had to be taken into consideration. I wonder whether other families would have other factors included in.

Human medicine for cat

While we were at Hanif’s (one of my staff) house for Hari Raya visitation, the children were excited to see three male cats. Clarissa was brave enough to touch one of the cats. The cats were well taken care of and well fed.

Hanif’s father told us that one of the cats got sick two weeks ago. They almost wanted to throw away the cat as the cat was too weak to live. Somehow, Hanif’s mother gave one medicine (that was supposedly to be taken by Hanif’s sister) to the cat. And lo and behold, the cat became healthy. Hmm…this is indeed very interesting. Does it work vice versa?

Young coconut water for my children

Clarissa vomited again just now. I think it is because of the Yakult drinks that she drank. Maybe her stomach could not take that drink yet. Oh well, the rest of the Yakult drinks would be consumed by me then.

Since the doctor advised to give coconut water to the children or isotonic drinks like 100 Plus or Isomax, I decided to pluck young coconuts for them. There a few low coconut trees near the fish ponds at the back of my house. Tried using the existing bamboo stick to pluck it but it is too thin and not suitable to pluck the coconut. So I had to cut a new bigger thicker bamboo stick, trimmed its' smaller branches. With this new bamboo stick I managed to pluck 4 young coconuts. Hmm....the water taste refreshing and the coconut flesh is delicious too.

Ah... the joy of staying in a village. Free coconut water.

Daddy's Turn

After eating smoked ham, 3 cheese sausages, and one fried egg for dinner, I had to attend to my children’s purging and vomiting. I thought everything would be okay for me. Almost midnight, I started to feel nauseas and giddy.

By the time I managed to write one post on my blog, I already feel like vomiting. Went to the toilet immediately and there all the smoked ham, sausages and egg went down the toilet bowl. Ewwch … I really don’t like the smell and taste of the vomit.

Thank God that everything come out…from the mouth and also the ass. Felt slightly better after that. Arggh… maybe my wife wants to poison me. Must be careful from today onwards. That cunning lady….trying to use my children situation to poison her husband.

A Day of Vomiting and Purging

Today should be declared A Day of Vomiting and Purging. All my three children are sick. Barnabas, Clarissa and Annabelle vomited from the morning till late at night. One after another will cry out for attention.

“Mommy, my stomach pain pain”, Annabelle groaned.

“Mommy, I got stomach egg”, whines Clarissa.

And Barnabas will just cry and cry and look for the mother.

Then Clarissa will come and tell me that she want to go ngk ngk (poo-poo). Send her to the toilet but nothing comes out. A minute later she will come again and say that she wants to go ngk ngk again. The cycle continues almost every 2 minutes once for about 1 hour. Then suddenly, Annabelle vomited. Had to take the mop and mop the floor. After an hour or so, it is Clarissa’s turn to vomit. I think each of my children vomited twice yesterday.

Never had I had to clean up the vomit so many times in my life. And never had I brought my daughter to the toilet so many times in a day. Therefore, I shall declare 15 October as the Day of Vomiting and Diarrhea.

In His Arm

Reached home from work today and received a surprise. As I opened the door to the house, my son Barnabas saw me. He gave a wide smile, happy to see me.

"Barnabas, come to daddy. Come, come, hug daddy" I said to him.

Immediately he came to me and open wide his arm to hug me. Hugged him tight. Wah.....this feeling like no other, I want you to know. It's so wonderful to be wanted by him. Hugged him and asked him to kiss me. That he still shy to give. Don't know why.

Daddy, Ride Carefully!

I prefer to go to work using my bike rather than driving the car. Firstly, it saves time as I can reach my shop faster. I do not have to wait long at the traffic lights or slowly follow the snail-moving lorries. Secondly, it is cheaper to ride a motorbike than driving the car.

One night before going to work, my daughter waved goodbye to me. She told me, "Daddy, ride carefully okay. Don't fall down." Wah... so touching. My own daughter telling me to be careful. Maybe she does not want to see me met with an accident again. Hehehe... with "commands" like that from my daughter... I sure ride carefully.

Stay At Home Dad I Am Not

You might be thinking that I am a SAHD to be able to blog about parenting. Well, I am not. I own an Internet Cafe business and I only go to work at night after my children are ready for bed.

So, during the day, I mind my own children until my wife returns home from work. She is a full time working mom.

So, I have the joy of watching them grows right under my nose.

Nurturing them and disciplining them my way.

So, this is what this blog going to be all about. Parenting from the Daddy's perspective.