Heartbroken Part 3

On Friday we could not decide where to go. I was surfing the net for ideas while Asri took out the terrapins for their daily "exercise". J had asked us to take care of hers while she went away to Genting for holiday. Asri left the kids alone with the terrapins. Big mistake. When he went to the living room a while later, only our terrapin was left. J's terrapin had disappeared! We panicked of course. Immediately we asked Rayden what had happened as we were sure it was him who had hidden the little animal somewhere. We turned the whole house upside down but could not find any. We suspected that Rayden had thrown the terrapin out of the window. It spoiled my mood for the entire day.. We didn't go out till evening to take the flyer.

Then when we reached home, I just casually asked Kyan how Rayden had thrown away the terrapin out of the window. He demonstrated that Rayden had stood on the sofa and flung the terrapin out of the window. I became suspicious because I knew Rayden wouldn't have done that. A thought crossed my mind, maybe it was Kyan who did it. I asked him again and he admitted that it was him. I was shocked. I questioned why he did that. He said that he didn't like the small terrapin. I was really speechless. Asri caned him and both of us ignored him. He fell asleep, crying.

I really couldn't believe that he had done such a thing. Maybe he did it cos he didn't like K and he knew that the terrapin belonged to her, or maybe he did it to show us that he was jealous of his brother cos he's younger and smaller, ie, the terrapin was smaller than ours. I went to bed, perplexed.

The next morning Asri went downstairs to search for the terrapin but to no avail. Kyan woke up with swollen eyes. My heart went out to him but I still could not get over the incident. We went downstairs to search for the terrrapin before moving to Kovan and Tampines to find similar ones for J.

We couldn't find the right one. When we reached home, I was so mad with Kyan that I caned him again and sent him to his room. He screamed his lungs out. I knew I shouldn't have vented my anger on him. I was struggling with the shock that my son was actually so "evil" to throw a live animal down and the frustration of how to tell J about the fate of her terrapin. Kyan must have been traumatised because he mentioned that he was tired and went to bed by himself.

When I've calmed down, I spoke to him about the incident and he knew he was in the wrong. Asri said perhaps he is still young so he didn't know that he was actually killing an animal. Maybe his intention was just to get rid of it, as in get it out of his sight. I know I was too harsh on him. I felt really bad.

Asri felt bad too. He went to Serangoon to search for the "right" terrapin. He bought 2 similar ones back but they still don't look like J's.

Come Sunday, we went to Parkway to search for terrapins again but can't find any. That night, I told J what had happened. She was quite ok about it. I felt so bad.

I knew I came down too hard on Kyan. Sometimes when I looked at him, I can see this sadness in his eyes, as though to tell me that he knows he's wrong to do that. When I asked him to hug me, he hugged me really tight. I think he knows. Maybe I've to be more aware of his feelings. Maybe I've neglected him in a way cos I'd assumed he's older and can do more things on his own. Maybe he feels that we've been showering all our love and attention on his brother.

I really feel so sad. Maybe I've not been a good enough mother.

Holiday Activities

We brought the kids to the zoo on Wednesday. It was fun but tiring! The kids enjoyed themselves too, especially Kyan at the water play section. Rayden was claustrophobic cos he refused to step into the water at all.

Thursday we were at the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden at Botanical Garden. The kids had fun at the water play section. Before we could venture the park further, it poured. Thank god the kids had fun decorating recycled materials for the xmas tree. When the weather cleared slightly, we went into the park again for a quick tour of the place. Then it poured again so we decided to go home before catching the Elmo show at Marina Square.

Heartbroken Part 2

Last Tuesday Asri was on leave so we thought we'd just send the kids to school so we can enjoy couple time together. We had lunch at Parkway and thereafter to Raffles Place to pick up the calendula cream. I was not familiar with that area so I directed Asri to the OCBC carpark. Who knows that that would be a big disaster? The carpark was so narrow that we could barely make our way up as cars were coming down too. With each car either moving up or down, the other car in the opposite direction had to slow down or even stop to let that car pass. When we were rounding a corner, we heard a loud scrapping noise. The left rear door had knocked against a pillar and we could neither move forward nor reverse. Asri and I panicked. Then he moved the car slowly out of the fix but the damage was already done. Our left rear door was dented and scrapped badly, the rim of the tyre was also affected. Our hearts sank. He was in no mood to drive after that. We made some calls and went down to 2 workshops to get some quotations on how to fix the damage. Workshop 1 quoted us $550 to knock back the panel and it'l take 2 days. Workshop 2 gave us 2 options. Option 1: Change door - $350, spray paint - $320, labour - $80 so total $750. Option 2: Knock back the panel and spray paint $500. We decided on option 2 as it was an old car and we didn't want to spend so much. Touchwood, what if we were to knock it again? *sigh*, to upkeep a car is indeed costly as we've to budget for the unexpected. Well, this is indeed an expensive lesson!