Don’t quite get along. But hey, I’m the admin and I do get to choose awful titles for my posts.  Hahaha.

Anyways.

Image courtesy of NutGraph

First up. Sweetened Condensed Milk. If you’ve lived in Malaysia for as long as I have .. *ehem ehem* .. all 36 28 years of it, you’ve tasted this tins of oozing, creamy stuff in your teh tarik or as I liked it, spread over a slice of bread and eaten as snacks during busy school days.

Now, fast forward back to 2010. Sigh! I’m saddened to report that I can’t find a measly tin of it anywhere on any shelves in any hypermarkets or minimarkets or even kedai pakcik ali at the corner anymore. What we have is this darn sweetened condensed creamer, which I never thought would matter. But a closer look would reveal that there’s not an ounce of milk in it. Just palm oil. Darn!

Now, read NutGraph‘s take on why the sweetened condensed milk have been replaced by its inferior cousin, the creamer and you can join me in feeling like kicking someone.

Anyway. I’m ranting because this weekend’s cake for the Heavenly Cake Bake-Through is a Torta de las Tres Leches. A mouthful aye? I’ve not skipped any cakes yet and intend to skip only when my massive house renovation forces me to close the kitchen. So, the recipe calls for a tin of condensed milk and I can’t find any. Annoyed , I am.

So how now brown cow? I can sit it out, but Rose heightened the excitement by saying we’re all in for a treat if we make the cake. And I’m always taken by what Rose says anyway. I think I should just go ahead and use whatever I have and rant more and have a darn good excuse if I fail miserably, aye?

Now the dentists story.

My kids just don’t take vegetables but they love sweets and ice-creams and whatever’s not entirely good for them.  That makes them kids, I reckon.

Anyhow.  Knowing that, we’ve been religious in getting them to see our friendly, extremely nice dentist, Dr Rozita every 6 months.  All four of my kids.  One goes, all go.  No one sits this out.

So, the last week of 2009, there we were at the dentist’s office, expecting a long afternoon there.

It turned out that Adani and Aliya’s teeth were all hunky-dory and fine.  Phew!

Ayisha though has a caries and needed a filling.  A little history.  Ayisha turned 9 last December and exhibits all the Second-Child syndrome especially the tantrums and the grumpiness and the no-no and more no-s.  When something is not right, she’ll just shut down and refuse to do anything.

My dentist meanwhile must have training in child behavioural and she insisted that Ayisha takes responsibility over her decision.

So, the option was an anesthetic local injection which involved a little pain up front and a painless procedure later.  Or a painful procedure.  Ayisha clammed up and refused the needle.  She cried and she bawled and nothing could make her open up.  The dentist shooed me away and an hour later, Ayisha was cooperating, with tears and the filling was completed within 5 minutes.

I’m not sure to congratulate the dentist or to scowl at her.  Good thing she did was to talk to Ayisha like an adult, accountabilities and responsibilities.  But being a mom, it pained me to see Ayisha being put under such stress.  Maybe she needed to experience the effects of her choices and maybe the dentist was God’s way of showing us, a way to deal with Ayisha.  And I’m need of direction where Ayisha is concerned.  Alhamdulillah it came to me is a twisted way, but that’s Allah’s way.  So, this year, insyallah I’ve resolved that we may need to deal with her differently through her tantrums.

School has never been easy on Ayisha as it has been for Aliya.  I’ve always made excuses that she was born in December, hence she’s not as ready as her peers.  But she’s 9 now and she needs to really catch up, especially where Maths are concerned.  I’ve also resolved to have more patience with her and to work it out with her every night and not lose my temper, as I always did last year.  Nights where she had tears streaming down her face and me, tears down my face will be long gone.  Insyallah.

I digress.

Back to the dentist story.

Ariz, the not-so-baby in the family is one very opinionated boy.  He said no to sitting on the dentist chair and a lot of other things too.  Not even when he gets to wear the cool sunglasses if you sit it in.  All through Aliya and Adani’s breeze checks and Ayisha’s long, lengthy, full of drama and teary sessions.

I didn’t have high hopes that he could cooperate.  Suddenly just before Ayisha got off the chair, snoot and tears and all.  He asked me if it’s his turn.  I said Yes and almost ignored him, as I needed to comfort Ayisha.

He took off his shoes and climb up the chair, much to the amusement of the dentist and us all.  OMG!  Readily, opening his mouth even when the nurse wasn’t ready yet.  Unbelievable.  One thing I learnt there that I knew all along was that, Ariz is one of those kids who will just say no, but when the crunch time comes, they’ll be up for it.

He had to have a filling too and my heart sank.  But Ariz agreed to an injection to numb the pain and everything was over within 15 minutes.  He even dozed off and the dentist had to wake him up.

Aliya, Ariz and Ayisha.

Adani and MrGart

For 2 solid hours later, he amused us by him not being able to smile symetrically since the local anesthetic has not worn off yet.

I’m so proud of him and all of the kids.  I’ve warned them that this is 6 monthly affair and whatever you do, think about the next dentist visit.  Gertak!