七情上面的吉他表演

有一次乐恒在我的祖母（乐恒的曾祖母）面前玩了一段"Air Guitar",用双手在空中仿似弹吉它的模样。她给了我十块钱，要我买一个玩具吉他给乐恒。我找了很久，才发现市面上的玩具店并没有普遍售卖玩具吉他，而如果到ToysRUs购买，叫价竟然是百多块！

还好乐恒的祖母（我的母亲）知道了，到处去找，终于找到了下面照片里面的玩具吉他。

吉他一到手，乐恒竟然有款有形地拿起来弹。声音当然完全不对，但他的表情真的是七情上面！

大年初一带乐恒到曾祖母家拜年，顺道带上玩具吉他，让他表演。虽然似乎没有什么人在听他唱歌，但表演完后的掌声，让乐恒的眼中泛起满意的样子。真可爱！

When the yakking of Luck Heng is much appreciated

The last few days had been grueling for me.  Luck Heng began to feel uneasy on Thursday evening and started to throw-up and 'down-load' throughout the night.  Every 30 mins, he will wake up with a slight groan that grows into loud wailing, as he complains of pain in the stomach.  A few times that night, he ended up passing some motion onto his pants, which caused him to cry uncontrollably as he feels ashamed that such things should not be happening on a 5-yr-old like him.

Brought him to the doctor's on Friday and took care of him the whole of Friday and Saturday.  Both days see him laying on the sofa listlessly, as if all the energy is zapped from him through the various episodes of vomit and diarrhoea.  Nothing much went into his system, except for some porridge and bread.

On Saturday evening, he felt a little better, hence he threw a small tantrum when he saw his dinner was still porridge.  He insisted that he wanted to have rice for dinner.  Seeing that his fever from two days ago has subsided, we relented.  

It was quite a mistake, because a few hours later, he threw up his dinner again, and that's when he said: "连晚餐都吐出来了。"  Somehow though, after that episode, he had a good night's rest.

At around 6am today, both Yoke Ping and I were coincidentally woken up by different reasons, and so we decided to perform one task for Lunar New Year that we have not completed yet - to prepare the Ang Pows - at that time.

Just as we were counting the money, Luck Heng woke up and starting asking me if he could play his Lego Police Station.  I was quite delighted, as the past two days he was so weak that he did not even have an inkling of interest in playing any of his toy.  We left him on his own to play his toy, while we we busy with the Ang Pows.

As he played, the normal Luck Heng returned: he was yakking both to himself and to us.  Usually we would find his yakking rather repetitive, some times boring, and at times irritating.  However, this time we were both appreciating, as the return of the yakking means that he is more or less recovered!

乐恒的第一个演唱会 - 一次愉快的经历

经过上星期的呼吁，有一位好心的姐姐看了乐恒可爱的video后，决定让出自己的演唱会门票给乐恒。我们在星期五傍晚带了乐恒在约定的时间地点和她见面，好让她把票交给我们。

之后的两天，乐恒一直在期待着星期天的来临，也不断的在车程中要求我一再的播放“五月天的新歌”。我也在博客看到台湾相信音乐的Joe的留言，叫我们可以不用担心，带乐恒去演唱会。但是因为没有留下联络方式，我也不知道该不该相信。

星期天下午，午觉过后，我就带着乐恒到演唱会会场。演唱会八点开始，我们六点到达，但已经是比好几千个粉丝迟了。反正迟也迟了，我就带乐恒到附近的购物中心买些点心当晚餐，回到会场，就学别人一样做在地上享用晚餐。


等了一回儿，会场开放，等了许久的粉丝们很有秩序的步入会场。到了我们入场时，只看到负责保安的工作人员，没有看到像是音乐公司的工作人员，我也没有询问是不是如Joe说的。

随着人群走向舞台，看到大群人们都挤到会场的中央，两侧竟然没什么人，我就拉着乐恒到了会场的左侧，很幸运的可以占到一个非常接近舞台左侧的地点。

环顾四周，会场算宽敞。头顶上乌云密布，但也因为这样，阵阵凉风习习吹来，让人觉得挺舒服的。但我心里也想，希望天气就一直保持在这样就好，如果下雨的话，就完了。



乐恒年纪小高度矮，要让他看到台上，我就必须想法子把他撑起来。十多公斤，说重不重，但如果要抱他一、两个小时，我是绝对没有办法做到的。很幸运的，我们所在的舞台左侧，就有将观众与工作区隔开的铁栏。我将乐恒抱上，坐在铁栏上，高度刚刚好！



乐恒开心地坐了一会儿，有一位保安人员有礼貌的提醒我们在演唱会进行时因为安全原因不可以这样坐。我就得开始动脑筋应该怎么办。突然我灵机一动，把带来的背包掛在自己前面，让乐恒坐上去。虽然这样做会让我腰酸，但也胜过用手抱。我就这样‘顶’着乐恒，听了前面的几首歌。




五月天开始表演，所唱的，都是乐恒热爱的歌曲：《疯狂世界》、《终结孤单》、《人生海海》、《倔强》等歌曲，乐恒都开心的唱着。这时有一位工作人员问我要不要让乐恒站在铁栏的另一面，一个小铁板上。我把乐恒抱过去，乐恒一站，高度刚刚好。又次很幸运的能够让乐恒和我更舒适地享受演唱会！



站在铁板上，乐恒更可以快乐的随着音乐跳起来。不一会儿，唱到《离开地球表面》，乐恒更是使劲地Jump!


接下来的歌曲，又有许多乐恒的最爱：《志明与春娇》、《垃圾车》、《出头天》、《恋爱ing》等，他都忘我地大声唱，大声笑。

工作区里的工作人员，也掏出电话，将他拍下来。我和这位工作人员交谈，他说看到乐恒这么小就几乎每一首歌曲都会唱，觉得很有趣。我告诉他乐恒的票是别人给的，因为我把他的video放上网。他就冒出一句：“你就是Joe说的那位！”

原来是真的！（在这里要向Joe道歉，因为之前对你的留言半信半疑。也要对给乐恒票的Joelle姐姐说对不起，害你没得出席这次的演唱会。）

工作人员还告诉我，原来是石头看到了我的网贴，请Joe转告新加坡的同事。五月天真的看到了乐恒给他们的话！真的很幸运！

原本以为是新歌飙唱会，只会唱新歌，应该不会搞到太迟，但竟然有bonus地唱了许多我们喜欢的旧歌。但乐恒毕竟还小，到了演唱会的尾声时也有点累了，但他却也坚持要听完全部的歌曲才肯回家。演唱会完后，他还问我：“为什么没有唱《私奔到月球》？”

回家之前，乐恒坚持要我吃完之前没吃的“晚餐”。我们父子俩就坐在室内体育馆的梯级上吃，也录了这一段话。



总的来说，乐恒那天的快乐是总总因素与许多不同的人所促成的。他经过这次愉快的经验后，也告诉我说一定要到八月的五月天演唱会去！

更多照片

O买尬！ (Oh My God!)

“五月天，我没有去过你的演唱会。我很想去你的演唱会！”



其实乐恒不知道/不记得自己其实在妈咪肚子里时陪过爸爸妈妈去过一次五月天的演唱会。或许胎教这回事是真的吧，年纪小小的他自从一两年前就非常喜欢五月天的歌曲。有机会坐我的车，都会要求听五月天的歌；每天晚上临睡前，也常常哼唱几首给几个月大的弟弟听；连大人问他最喜欢看什么电视节目，答案只有1.DisneyPlayhouse 2.五月天的演唱会DVD。

这次在第一时间买了五月天的最新专辑之后，知道能够换取免费的新歌飙唱会门票，我也兴奋的告诉乐恒我可以带他去五月天的演唱会了。我弟弟也买了一张专辑，但因为有事不能去听，就把兑换券交给了我。

12月28日兑换门票，很兴奋的带了一家大小到Central购物中心去。虽然是比指定时间早一个半小时抵达，心里有数人龙必定会长。但万万没有料到有如此的长！沿着人龙从头一直走，在购物中心外转了两个角落，才在新加坡河畔看到了“龙尾”。Oh My God! 伤脑筋！

太阳并不留情，正好中午，很用力的将滋养万物的强烈光与热洒在我们身上。虽然有阳伞遮荫，却也只能稍微驱走一点点快将人煮熟的热气。乐恒小小的头，平时就很容易满头大汗，这时更是有如刚从浴室中出来一样的湿！为了鼓一鼓他的“士气”，我叫他唱了一首五月天的歌曲：


花了大约一个小时在烈日下排队之后，工作人员开始派票，也有叫人到排队的人群中提醒大家把CD和兑换券拿出来。我又仔细一看，才发现兑换券上的小字写着一张兑换券+CD换一张门票！一张票，当然不可能让乐恒独自去，但也不可能让一名成人带他去。Oh My God! 伤脑筋！

突然灵机一动，想起弟弟的兑换券，就希望工作人员可以看在乐恒才仅仅五岁就那么热爱五月天，再加上有兑换券不就证明有购买CD了，可以网开一面，让我们换两张门票。

不料，轮到我们换票时，工作人员还是遵守规则，只给了我一张门票。他们的尽责态度是对的，但我也暗暗为乐恒失望。没想到，乐恒竟然脱口说了一句：“爸爸，只有一张票，我们share share（共用）吧！” 这句话令我心中又喜又悲。喜的是平日对乐恒的教诲，玩具、东西都应该共用，他记得很清楚；悲的是，我这个做老爸的，既然让他有了期待，却不能让期待实现。Oh My God! 伤脑筋！

晚上回家途中乐恒突然对我说：“爸爸，我要跟你讲话：我没有去过五月天的演唱会，我很想去。”我就叫他录了一段话给五月天（上面第一个video）

希望五月天或滚石新加坡能听到乐恒的呼吁，完成他的心愿。

Merry Christmas to all!

He cannot handle the truth!

Photos we took during our visit to Science Center on 21 Nov 2008.


We first brought Luck Heng to the Science Center when he was about 3 years old. We made a mistake to also attempt to bring him to the OmniMax theater which was showing a movie on dinosaurs. We barely spent 5 mins after the beginning of the show, before Luck Heng screamed for us to leave the OmniMax theater - because he was horrified by the dinosaurs.

This fear of dinosaurs carried on until now. When we arrived at Science Center again a few Saturdays ago, what greeted us at the entrance was a huge mock-up T-Rex. We tried to convince Luck Heng to take a photo with the dinosaur but he resisted it. The picture you see him with Kang Heng and Mummy was taken at the end of the day, after he relaxed and got himself totally drenched at the WaterWorks exhibit area.

Most of the exhibits in Science Center could not really raise his interest, since I figure it was still too early to explain some of the principles behind the exhibits. What was on his mind was the WaterWorks portion (which he could see at the entrance of the Science Center. To make sure that he does not just rush through the rest of the exhibits, I set a time for us to visit WaterWorks - at 5pm, one hour before the close of Science Center.

Although Luck Heng did not understand many of the exhibits, another thing he was looking forward to was to see "the Earth". Some time ago I introduced to Luck Heng my favourite group MayDay (五月天), and they have a song "Crazy World" (疯狂世界), where there was a line: "I really really want to fly, to escape from this Crazy World". He started to ask me what is the "World". I introduced maps and the continents to him, and eventually told him that we live in a big ball known as "the Earth". I was thinking of brining him to the exhibit area where the model of the Sun, Earth and other planets are displayed to explain to him more on this topic.

However, we came upon another exhibit area which got me more interested - on Climate Change. I taught Luck Heng about having to save electricity, save water and not waste anything. There was one interactive display where one can rotate a dial to move through a timeline from 2001 to 2100, to show how Global Warming is affecting Earth through the various years, if we don't do anything now. The map of the Earth got Luck Heng interested, and I explained to him the significance of the red portions on the map. The main point he learnt from this is that if we waste electricity and water, the world will get very very hot.

That night, before he slept, he asked for me to sleep beside him. I asked him for the reason, and he told me he was worried that the world will get very very hot. I comforted him that if he does as he is told to save electricity and water and food and other things, the world will not be very very hot. This comforting did not work as he continued to get very upset, so much so that he starting crying and ended up throwing up his dinner and supper.

I did not know that the impact would have been so great on him, but good thing is that after he got over it, he still remembers that conservation is key in everything we do today, which I think is good education for him.

Fullhouse Symptoms

When I brought Luck Heng home from school on Thursday evening, my neighbour talked to him and commented to me that he seemed quite tired. I attributed his quietness to shyness, and said goodbye to my neighbour after a few minutes.

That night, we discovered that Luck Heng was running a high fever. From past experiences, we know that once Luck Heng does not perspire, fever will come, so we were wishing and hoping that he starts to perspire again. He stayed at home on Friday, and luckily was pretty cheerful throughout the day, despite the fever going up and down. It was also a stroke of good luck that we came upon a DVD of his favourite Micky Mouse Clubhouse, featuring both Mandarin and English languages. Most of his time at home was entertained by how hilarious Donald Duck sounds in Mandarin (cannot decipher a word!) and the interesting translations from English (Toodles became 土豆).

Come Friday night, what we hoped for came true: he began to perspire, and the fever was officially over. I began to plan in my mind what we can do on Saturday, and asked where Luck Heng wanted to go. He said he wanted to stay at home. This was the same answer he gave one week ago when I asked him what he wanted to do after going out for a few consecutive Saturdays, so I did not think much about it.

On Saturday morning, I prepared his favourite sausage in hotdog bun as his breakfast, and he was happily munching it. I was still thinking of getting out of the house for lunch, since I was also "clamped up" at home for the last few days. However, in a short while, Anna (our domestic helper) told us that she noticed some red spots on Luck Heng's palms. We took a closer look, and found some spots on his palms, more on the outside of his elbow and even more on the feet and on the soles. We started to suspect that he contracted HFMD, but of course we needed to get someone to verify it. When Luck Heng knew he could possibly get HFMD, he broke into tears, because his worst nightmare came true - somehow some time in the past he got the idea that once one gets HFMD, an injection is a must.

We would have brought him to our family doctor, the GP at the clinic downstairs. However, he is off on Saturday afternoons, so after lunch I brought Luck Heng to CompassPoint, to see the doctor at Raffles Medical Clinic. I managed to convince him that it is not really necessary for an injection, unless it is a very serious case. However, when we knocked on the door to enter the doctor's room, the first thing he said was still a calm: "不要打针hor!"

The doctor was slightly amused, but went on to do his job to check the rashes. He checked Luck Heng's mouth too and told me "Fullhouse Symptom". I asked what that means. He said, it means that all 3 areas that can possible show symptoms showed the symptoms. Interesting phrase to learn.

Anyway, there was nothing much we could do, except to wait out the few days when Luck Heng still has the rashes. Doctor gave him some lozenges for sore throat and vitamin C to strengthen his immunity. The only to do was to have a psuedo-quarantine where I take care of Luck Heng exclusively and Yoke Ping take care of Kang Heng exclusively. We were hoping to not get Kang Heng infected, but the doctor said Luck Heng was contagious even during the fever days, so if there was any damage, it would have been done.

True enough, Kang Heng was subsequently diagnosed with HFMD today, but that's story for another post, after I get some photos of Kang Heng's spots.