Lately, what with my dad's op and all, started talking with parents a lot about old times. For some reason, i've always assumed i was the well-behaved baby/child in the family, compared to my rascal-of-a-brother. Wasn't till recently i was told i was just as much of a pain to take care of as my bro. Heh. Wonder how i got the idea i was good....

Mum complained that they could never get any rest with me around. I would wake at 6am everyday, whether holiday or not. And when i woke, i made sure everyone else in the house was up together with me =). I managed to start walking pretty fast. It seemed i walked or scrambled from room to room waking my family up. (My grandma, uncle and aunt were living with us).

Had a curious nature as well. Had an insatiable urge to explore everything in the cupboards and drawers. Was told that once i got my hands on any open cupboard or drawer, i'd ransack them, pull out whatever was inside and play with them. I had a particular fascination for crockery. Loved biting spoons and clanging pots and pans. In fact, i refused to play with toys and hated dolls. Crockery was my thing. It's ironic the grown-up version of me can hardly cook.

Dad always got super tired taking care of me. I hardly slept so he could never grab a breather in the afternoons. Finally, he put two and two together and decided that the only way to get some sleep was to open the cupboards and ALLOW me to play with the things inside....HAH!

When i got big and strong enough to pull open drawers myself, new measures had to be taken to prevent ransacking. Get this, my parents actually screwed latches onto each drawer and locked them just so i couldn't yank them open. sheesh. Years later, i remember wondering why all the drawers at home had 4 tiny holes in them. Heh.

Other antics included falling on my face several times (yeah yeah u can say damage has been done..), grabbing a stuffed toy off the rack at a supermarket and refusing to let go till my parents paid for it and brought it home, and biting on the 'jail' that held me while my parents did housework till my teeth turned green. (The green paint on the baby cot came off in my mouth...) Mum said she thought i'd poisoned myself.

One of my greatest achievements as a baby was probably not succumbing to the same mode of transport other babies used to get around. While others crawled before they walked, i used my BUTT! While others got around using 4 points of contact with the ground, i got around on 3. My feet and butt. Basically, i navigated myself backwards, sliding myself around on my butt, using my legs/feet as a propeller. Then one fine day, i decided to stand up.

I actually feel quite amused with myself.

Anyways, the point of this is, i'm a restless little one. Always wondered where i got that part of my genes from. But since dad's hospital stay, i know now which block this chip is off.

The improvement from the day of the op to the next day was drastic and amazing. One day he was lying there motionless, mumbling incoherently to himself, unable to eat or move. The next day, he was ambling around, calling us to bug us about how come we weren't there to visit yet, moving his head, scratching around his wound vigorously and telling lengthy repetitons of his stories. (note: he'd just had a disc removed and another inserted into the lower portion of his neck, mind u) His greatest stunt that day came after he started complaining that there was no sound coming from his overhead tv. We pressed blindly on the remote control but to no avail, then gave up. What we didn't realize was that HE hadn't given up. I stepped outside for a while. Dad sat up on his bed and started removing the pile of newspapers lying on a nearby chair. And before mum could say "Rumpelstiltskin!", he had climbed onto the chair to adjust the problematic tv set... Sigh. Dunno what to say. He's so bored and restless the doc has decided to discharge him tomorrow. Heh.

Sooo...dad's coming home tmr. Which is very fast recovery, according to the doc. Thank God. Just hope there's enough at home to occupy him. He was VERY dismayed to find out he is not allowed to exercise till several months later. He'd better not sneak out to do funny things while we're at work man... Haiyoh!