We love Thomas

6 June 2009

Is this the same little boy whose eyes welled up in tears when the teacher raised her voice at the class (and not at him)? Who would cry when a well-meaning stranger who shared the same table warned him that his food was hot? The new kid in class who spoke so softly, the teacher could barely make out his words? Surprise, surprise ... he walked up the stage like a pro, answered each question clearly and surely in front of a big and strange crowd. Never underestimate a child ...

Oh no, we have a squealer in the family!

Yes, he takes the form of a toddler below the height of a metre and who until a month back could not even form a sentence beyond 2 words.

We live on the 1st floor of an apartment block that has 4 floors and a basement carpark.

It was a Sunday morning more than a month ago. We stepped into the lift and Peanut mischievously pressed the buttons numbered 1 and 2 whilst SP, who is vertically limited, pressed B for basement. The lift went up to the 3rd floor and a couple walked in. As I couldn't possibly claimed to be unrelated to the 2 boys (with Wati being the only other adult who is clearly not of Chinese descent), I felt obliged to apologise for the acts of the boys, "Sorry, you have to bear with us, my naughty boys pressed those buttons." The man teasingly asked, "So what shall we do with these boys."

Peanut quickly hid behind me. SP boldly and clearly said, "Kor kor" (meaning, "it wasn't me, it was my brother"). Believe me, I'm not reading too much into it. This kid is a lot more complicated than the usual package that goes with his age and size. Not convinced? Here is another incident:

Drawing on sofa
I found some pen markings/doodlings on my off-white leather sofa and was of course, not pleased. I asked aloud, "Who drew this?". And SP quickly said with a straight face, "Kor-kor". When confronted, Peanut told me it was SP's act of mischief (which was confirmed by Wati). So I turned to SP, "Did you draw this?" Again, he replied, with the same honest look on the face, "Kor-kor".

Going to Tebo's Birthday Party

23 May 2009

First time, we received an invite from Peanut's classmate to attend a birthday party. I was excited, probably more so than Peanut. It's like receiving an invite to attend some graduation ball, oh.. I exaggerated. But it's like my first social event where I'd get to meet up with his classmates' parents ... what am I going to talk about apart from my kids or the school??

As it turned out, it was a "drop and pick-up" party with party organisers at Go Bambini, i.e. leave your kid to have fun and pick him up when the party ends. So, no (or minimum) socialising amongst adults ... and no food for the adults. The idea takes getting used to, not exactly my idea of hosting a birthday party.

Here is the gift card with the names written by Peanut (I was beaming cheek-to-cheek with pride as I watched my baby slowly etching out each letter as if I were witnessing him writing some ancient hieroglyphics):



And of course, it makes a difference when your best friend is also at the party:



Simple party games enjoyed by simple little folks:

Jumping with the music:


Free-zzz-e


Is that possible - Sweet Potato following instructions to a T:

Till Death Do Us Part

Here's a touching story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/world/europe/15britain.html

Death is something I do not know how to explain to Peanut.

He used to think it was fun to be dead. And early this year (just before CNY to be exact. I was almost tempted not to do the CNY traditional visits with this as a valid excuse), it was a daily routine where he would go around 'shooting' with his toy gun and saying, "Die. Everybody die."

One night just before bed, he suddenly told me, "Summer's dad died." I was like stunned and silent for awhile; not knowing whether he really meant what he said or he meant it in pretend-play. You see, Summer is a classmate of his. I found out later from the teacher that sadly, it was a fact. It seemed to have bothered him. It is quite typical of Peanut to mull over something for a couple of days before he would find a way/time/place when you least expect it, to bring it up. Then I began to piece things together - no wonder he kept asking why Peter's (aka Spiderman) uncle died even though it was the umpteen time he was watching the movie. He must have been afraid that his dad or mama would die.

Oops, this is not meant to be a melodramatic entry.

On a brighter note, Sweet Potato too thinks it is fun to die. He would sprawl himself out flat on the sofa or on the floor and then exclaimed happily, "Die". Reminds me of the dog's trick of roll-over-and-play-dead.