We are going back to Singapore this Friday for the June holidays, so I started packing this morning. I started with my hand-carry bags, because with three kids on a flight, you need to be prepared. Anyway, I was getting our passports ready for my handbag when I suddenly realised that there were only three passports. C had taken his for his work trip early this morning, but where was N’s?
I was rather calm initially, thinking that C might have accidentally taken both his and N’s, so I texted him to check. He replied almost immediately, saying he only had his own, and telling me to FIND THE PASSPORT or N won’t be able to fly back to Singapore. Duh. I also know that lor.
I brought our passports to N’s new school yesterday for his enrollment visit, but I was pretty sure I put all three passports back when we got back. To be safe, I called the school and asked them to check if we had left it there. I also searched all the bags in the house, in all of N’s usual hiding places, such as under his pillow and mattress, C’s bedside drawer, my bedside drawer, the cupboard in our room, the drawers in the living room… you get the picture. I spent the entire morning looking for the passport, and even went down to check if it was in our car.
By noon, the only person who might have the passport was N, and it didn’t really seem that possible that he had brought it along to school, so I decided to ask the SG/MY chat group if there was a way for us to get a replacement passport in a day. I was directed to the Singapore Embassy’s website, where I found the ICA page with all the information and documents that had to be completed. I printed the forms and brought N’s birth certificate along to pick N up from school, prepared to rush to the embassy.
When I saw N, I asked him if he took his passport, and started searching his bag. He innocently replied, “I didn’t take it!” but when I continued digging through all the things in his bag, he piped up, “It’s not here! I know where it is!”
I think my heart stopped for a second there as I waited for him to tell me where the passport was.
“It’s under the toilet paper in the toilet!”
Oh yes, because that’s exactly where we always keep our passports, right?
I called my helper immediately, and asked her to check if it were really there. You CANNOT imagine the amount of relief I felt when she said she found it!
I asked N why he hid his passport there, and he nonchalantly said, “Oh I was looking at it, then I didn’t have time to put it back, so I just put it under the toilet paper to keep it safe.”
Didn’t have time, my foot.
Anyway, I’m writing this down here because I’m going to show it to him when he’s older, and tell him that he’s responsible for the ten extra strands of white hair that I got today.
He wasn’t even apologetic about the trouble and stress he caused! He thought it was funny, and told me that he wanted me to take photos of him finding the passport. I guess all the Drama lessons that he attended in school didn’t go to waste, huh?
Where is my passport?
Here it is!
Sorry, Mummy…
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