It was 10:30 PM, you just finished your Zoom call with your colleague who lived two oceans away (because distributed working and timezones), the house was almost dark (“almost”, because there was still some lights from the kitchen,) and you walked to your front door to lock it.

Then you almost screamed because you freaking hate house lizards — add it with you being superstitious that stepping on house lizard, or having a house lizard fell on you, is deemed as bad luck AS IF ACCIDENTALLY STEPPED ON A LIZARD IS NOT BAD ENOUGH — but everyone in the house already fast asleep so you… just… ?screaming in silence?

Because, yes.

The worst part?

The “lizard” is actually your kids’ toy.

A crocodile, even. From their zoo collections.

Alright. I’m going to try to blog on daily basis starting today. If I can write my thoughts regularly on Kakao Story, why couldn’t I do the same here.

I once mentioned in passing about how some nights I feel “crawlies” on my legs which caused me unable to sleep. Weeks later, Ari followed suit. He complained of itchiness which woke him up late at night, scratching all over his legs. Before you asked, yes, I considered the possibility of bed bugs or even worse: Lice.

Then again, I am so sure no such bugs appeared and visible on the house.

Why?

First, I got myself mattress cleaning service. I asked the cleaner if they see any bugs, and they confirmed they didn’t see anything. Other than mattress dusts, which is expected, they didn’t notice anything out of ordinary.

Second, the kids behaving normally. No sudden itchiness or any concerns. Bed bugs and lice spread really really fast, yet both Wira and Rey didn’t have any complaints at all. Furthermore, these two tend to camp on the parents’ bedroom (master bedroom) and they seemingly unaffected by the whole thing. The only thing I can think of is the bugs are actually discriminatory in terms of age. “Young kids? Ptooey!”

This made us questioning ourselves. Why, then, only Ari and I who got late-night itchiness?

We have this… air purifier + dust filter from Coway that we rent. Coway is a company from South Korea specializing in wellness products: water filters, air purifier, even mattress. They didn’t sell their product. They rent it instead. They have customer service team that will come to the client’s house once every several months to do regular checking and maintenance. If I’m not mistaken, the client will have the full right of the products after certain number of years.

Right. So. It was 10 PM when Ari decided to haul the air purifier from the living room to our bedroom. After a bit of squeezed in due to the room size, we activated the filter.

The filter has this… light indicator. Blue as the “purest”/the cleanest and red as the dirtiest/the room is filled with dust particles, along with the number indicator of dust particles. On the living room, the filter usually showing number 1 — a really really low number of dust particle.

As soon as we powered on the air purifier, the machine hummed loudly and the indicator jumped right into red status with number nearing 90-100. It took… I don’t know, 3 hours? Until the indicator whirred down.

At least we know now it was not bugs. It was dust allergy.

Moral of the story, folks: Reminder to dust off your bed and deep clean your house regularly.

Last week (? Wait. 2 weeks ago?) the kids got their second vaccination.

I always thought having bigger kids vaccinated was easier. I mean, have you heard babies got their shot?

Oh how wrong I was.

Babies are actually pretty easy. They didn’t know what a gosh dang syringe is. The only thing they know is who is this stranger talking to my parents and why they are looking at me intently and what is that OW WHAT IS THAAAAT RAAAAAAGEEEEEEE FEAR MY MINI ANGERY oh I am now comfortable again okay Imma go back to sleep.

Especially Rey. When Rey was a toddler (1-2 years old,) it was REALLY easy to get her took her vaccinations. All you got to do is talk about food. The paediatrician once chatted about super foods, and Rey was in awe when the doctor mentioned the food: Avocados, blueberries, strawberries… The doctor pulled the syringe and the next thing we knew she emitted an, “ow!” but that’s that. The doctor continued chatted the properties of bananas and toasts and Rey was back to her imagination of enjoying buffet dinner.

Now that the kids are bigger, I forgot both of these mini humans inherited one major trait from me:

Dramatic tendency.

Both Wira and Rey know perfectly well what vaccines are. They know how the virus and the pandemic change people’s lives worldwide.

And they know, it only hurts momentarily.

Does it stop them? No. Also, they knew the amount of stickers and candies and promises should they show a bit of fear, and how they exerted it to their own benefits.

“I’m so scaaareeed!”

“I know. It shouldn’t take long. It should take 10 seconds max.”

“I heard other kids crying!”

“Yes. They are feeling nervous too. And that’s okay.”

“… … … Can we get stickers and candies after this?”

A little voice quipped. “CAN WE GO TO FAMILY MART SO WE CAN BUY ODEN AND ONIGIRI?”

And they knew, their parents can’t refused it.

The pic was taken when they just climbed up into the car, clutching stickers. They managed to finish the house’s banana stock for a week and Rey decided to treat herself to five bottles of Yakult in one sitting.

And no, no side-effects. If any, they becoming more annoying on asking when dinner is ready.