"Cool man"

2 April 2011

Photos taken minutes before we left for a movie, I think it was Rio:

Soldiers For Hire

Freeze!

J, I'm sure you noticed the cushion on the sofa. Perfect fit and just as expected, makes an interesting accessory to our boring sofa . Thanks again.

Ever seen a willing captive?

Urrr .... do you salute with your left or your right hand?

Daily Lessons on Eloquence

I was complaining to a business associate, a mother of twins about the age of Sweet Potato, of how my share of homework had doubled as Sweet Potato's class had just embarked on "show and tell". She remarked in disbelief, "Can he do it at this young age?"


His first topic was 'family' and I prepared a poster (using a vanguard sheet - almost forgot that such things exist) with photos of family members. I have not had any feedback so far from his teachers. But I do know for a fact that he is one good storyteller. He has had a lot of practice - on the average at least once a day, he would come to me, using his sweetest voice in between sobs and sniffling, sometimes with effective pauses at the right places as if he is exercising great restraint, "Mama, just now ... gor-gor ... [used his buttocks to push me/squeezed my hands/beat me/snatched the toy from me/kicked me]."


"What did you do?"


"I used my buttocks to push him/squeezed his hands/beat him/snatched the toy from him/kicked him."

S.P's other achievements:

1. He is able to route count to 20, well almost - except that 15 and 19 are missing.

2. Innately able to do the opposite of what is asked of him. This morning's getting out of bed ritual went like this:

With huge dose of fake enthusiam, I exclaimed: Ok, everybody gets up.

S.P, matching with equal vocal strength: No-o-o-o

Everybody goes outside

No-o-o-o

Everybody says "No"

Y-e-e-s-s-s

Sigh, can't even out-smart a toddler. I don't need a crystal ball on this one - I see challenging times ahead, very challenging times.

Year of the Tiger

Finally, here are some photos for CNY 2010. This CNY, Sweet Potato is taught by 'popo' (my mum) to greet everyone 恭喜发财, 新年快乐, 身体健康 and successfully recruited a number of Aunties to his fan club!

Peanut learned the saying 天增岁月人增寿, 春满乾坤福满门 in school:

Peanut learned the story of 'nian' and the red banner, and made lanterns and gold fishes out of hong bao. Here is his best drawing yet:

Our CNY home decor, courtesy of Peanut:

Don't be overly impressed; he didn't exactly write those words - the teacher wrote them in pencil and he traced over them in ink. But it's a vast improvement of his fine motor skills nevertheless and yes, the couplets were proudly displayed in a number of homes this CNY by parents of his classmates who likewise reproduced the same artwork.

Who is your favourite superhero?

It's really fun to hear No 1 calling No 2 "Batman" and the latter calling the former "Spiderman" as if they were best of friends and defenders of the earth. Peanut likes his suit so much, I had to persuade him that they were not appropriate for his school's CNY celebrations notwithstanding that they were red and the class was told to wear red or traditional costumes.

Yesterday morning, like most mornings, Sweet Potato woke up, drank his bottle of milk and woke up Peanut with his cheerful chatterings. I turned to S.P, "Didi, can you please ask Auntie Wati to make milk for gor-gor?". Most mornings, he would oblige; once or twice, he would refuse. But this time, he surprised me with a shout "Batman to the rescue!", jumped out of bed, opened the door, left the room and I faintly heard him passed on the message to Wati. After Peanut finished his milk and was about to bring the bottle out, S.P said with a firm tone, "Good boy, Peanut." My superhero with his hilarious one liners.

Now, I am thinking my life would be complete if we have The Wonder Twins - yes, a family of 6. Just joking. Oops, I could almost hear Mr M muttering with disgust, "Not amused" or declaring with absolute resolve, "Dont' you even think about it".

Guess who had Insomia last night

And it wasn't me. Although I do suffer from it from time to time, less often of late. Think I'm finally breaking from the habit of waking up in the middle of the night wide eyed and totally alert for an hour, if I'm lucky, and sometimes lasting for as long as 3 hours. Suspect it was caused by the pattern of having to get up for night feeds, followed by a period when Peanut was being toilet trained and used to get up at 3 am to go to the toilet to relief himself. Toilet training with Sweet Potato was surprisingly straightforward. He has much better bladder control. Plus I am wiser (so not true, but rather stems from a long restrained desire to have quality sleep); he wears his diaper to sleep as a precaution. This by the way is discouraged by some literature I read on toilet training which generally says that the child should be allowed to feel the wetness and discomfort should he failed to hold his liquids. Whoever wrote that should come stay the night with us and observed the morning ritual of a diaper-clad toddler 'dancing' on the bed to hold his bladder, saying, "My wee wee going to come out already" whilst waiting for his still sleepy mum to fully appreciate the dire situation. We rushed to the toilet to pull down his dry diaper and pants in one go, just in time.

Last night, it was Sweet Potato who had sleeping difficulties. So the night went like this:

1.30 to 1.45 - I carried him, rocked him and walked the house to lull him to sleep
1.45 to 2.15 - We watched the school concert on DVD
2.15 to 2.45 - Mr M relieved me and they continued to watch the school concert
2.45 - Sweet Potato climbed into bed with me
3 - S.P went to the toilet, then declared that he was not tired
3 - 3.30 - We watched 'Charlotte's Web'
3.40 - S.P finally fell asleep after drinking his milk

Ah, the privilege of being a parent ...

Christmas 2009

25 - 26 Dec

On Christmas morning, Peanut exclaimed, "Presents! Santa came!" Well, dear, the presents did not appear as magically as you think. Your mama spent weeks shopping for them, squirreling them from the car boot to the house, wrapped them up in secrecy, hid them under the study table all this while and finally got up at 3 am to arrange them under the Christmas tree. All that effort just so you believe that Santa exists. I wonder if it makes sense. All just so that one day when you grow up, we will have to explain this Santa business and I imagine, your eyes would well up in tears ... tell me, am I setting up myself for something unpleasant? Ummm.

This year we held our Christmas celebrations with the family on Boxing Day. Christmas Day was spent at the Seah family's traditional Christmas party. J and TT, thanks for the gifts - excellent judgment, the tops are just the perfect size for the boys; won't take up storage space for the next few years, unlike those bought by grandmothers.

Trivia question: How many times can one play Monopoly (junior edition) over 3 days?

Let me count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... Michelle, thanks for the gift. Peanut is so in love with it - Bakugan version, no less. My Peanut, my baby, has started seriously on board games. He had played Snakes and Ladders before this, but he is really crazy about this one - the money, the house, the Chance cards, he is now an expert at the game, able to follow all the instructions without a hitch.

Next, I present to you the highlight of our family Christmas party:

Sweet Potato narrating "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle

"Neigh, neigh, said the horse. Want to go for a ride? The spider didn't answer. She was busy spinning her web.

Moo, moo, said the cow. Want to eat some grass? The spider didn't answer. She was busy spinning her web.

Baa, baa, bleated the sheep. Want to run in the meadow? The spider didn't answer. She was busy spinning her web.

Maa, maa, said the goat. Want to jump on the rocks? The spider didn't answer. She was busy spinning her web.

Oink, oink, grunted the pig. Want to roll in the mud? The spider didn't answer. She was busy spinning her web." And the story continues with a dog (Woof, woof, barked the dog. Want to chase a cat?), a cat (Meow, meow, cried the cat. Want to catch a nap?) and a duck (Quack, quack, called the duck. Want to go for a swim?)

"Cockle doodle do, crowed the rooster. Want to catch a pesty fly? And the spider caught the fly in her web just like that.

Whoo-woo, asked the owl. Who built this beautiful web? The spider didn't answer as she had fallen asleep, it had been a very very busy day!"

Isn't it amazing? He can't read a word but he knows the entire book by heart. Just don't ask me how many times I have read that book to him ...

The longest sentence uttered by SP yet

Prepare yourself for another toilet cum poo-poo joke.

We were all in bed after our nightly routine bedtime reading. It was a new Chinese book I just bought about a mouse which wanted an apple from the tree and along came different animals (bird, monkey, elephant, giraffe, rhino) which plucked an apple each from the tree. So I started asking a string of comprehension-like questions with no. 1 to practice his Mandarin, like how did the giraffe reach for the apple, etc. I didn't mean to leave out No. 2, but thought that he was half-asleep given his stillness. Like his usual assertive self, No. 2 decided to get into the act and show off his language skills, "I throw Mama in[to] the toilet bowl .. there's snake, cockroach, poo-poo, everything, insect. And I flush. Oh, no more Mama (breaks into laughter)".

No wonder, little girls don't play much with little boys.

Partners in Crime

Another backlog entry .. this one goes back to 11 July ..oops, that long ago. It's like one of those sci-fi movie (think, Back to the Future) where the story brings you back and forth through time and can get so confusing. Or like watching the Star Wars movies where they are not filmed in sequence and you have a non-fan like me trying to figure out which follows which in time.

Anyway, this is SP at 2 y.o - we needed to apply for a passport for our trip to G.C. Doesn't he look adorable? No two are the same ... I'm beginning to sound like my crafting friend selling her wares. I was so tempted to use the 3rd photo - it is THE trademark smile (and he goes, "Cheeze") each time you point a camera at him, as seen in many of our holiday photos. He looked the sweetest in the 4th. As these would not pass the strict criteria of our immigration department (from my personal experience, immigration officers of various nationalities in certain parts of the world are not known to have any sense of humour), I settled for the 2nd last photo.

And here are the photos of SP's partner-in-crime: Mug Shots

This Tiger can't peel his eyes off from the TV

This is Peanut in the same suit at 2.5 y.o : Tiger

Things We Do Together

"Row a boat"

At other times, the bolster is a "giant carrot" and each will tug one end whilst i sing the Chinese children song, ba ro bo (literally, pulling out the carrot).

Strange Way of showing his love

15 February 2009

It is Wati's day off today. It is the one day in a month that I have the boys all to myself. The morning was beautiful and we walked to the playground hand-in-hand - Peanut holding Sweet Potato's hand and I holding on to P's hand. Now that SP has a more steady gait (not to mention a good stamina for walking) and is fairly good with instructions, I am a lot more confident bringing them out by myself. Last month, we even made a trip to Bishan Park - just me and the 2 boys.

After the playground, I bathed the boys in the tub. As ususal, they were both reluctant to get out. I turned to Peanut:

"Why should Didi get out first everytime. How about you get out first for a change?"
"No, it's because I love didi everytime."

Peanut has been using "How about" for some time now. Like "How about we eat first, then we go home?", "How about you sleep with Didi and I play with Auntie Wati?". No prize for guessing where he picks that up from.

I Not Stupid - and I'm not talking about the Jack Neo movie

7 Feb 2009

We were at my aunt's place doing our round of CNY visits (cum the usual mj session). Peanut was hungry and asked for food. So my aunt brought him to the kitchen to see what food he would like. Apparently he asked for bread with cheese spread. I wasn't there to hear the conversation, but here is the version narrated to me:


Yipo (grandaunt to Peanut) opened her fridge (knowing that she had no cheese) and handed him the butter, hoping to pass it off as cheese.

P: Yipo, no, this is not cheese. It's butter.
Yipo: Oh. Right, it's butter; yipo said wrongly.

(Editor's comment: I thought that was quite a clever trick to cover up for a lie. Of course, in the first place, no parenting book/guide worth its salt will approve a lie to begin with. But in reality, as real parents, we do find ourselves in situations where a white lie (or maybe a half-truth) is sometimes necessary. And if caught red-handed unsuspectingly by an all-knowing kid, maybe useful to remember this trick.)

Ah, but P wasn't about to let her get away so easily.
P: You stupid, I not stupid

When Mama becomes the baby

Ever tried sleeping on the lap of a 3.5y.o? Peanut was watching TV with his pillow on his lap and I just decided to rest my head there for a brief moment. Peanut rested his palm lightly on my shoulder and asked gently, like the way he would speak to his little brother, "Mama, are you a baby?" "Yes, I'm a big baby." When I lifted myself up, he asked me to stay laying down. So sweet, so lovely, so blissful. Strongly recommended instant pick-me-up therapy for sleep-deprived parents - who have been up for 6 out of 7 nights, changing bed sheets, cleaning a kid with pee-soaked pjs and finding it hard to fall asleep after the activities. It's just so liberating being a parent - you can so totally function even without satisfying basic needs! Oh did I forget to mention that on the one night when Peanut stayed dry, I stayed up most part of the night waiting for Peanut to say, "mama, my pyjamas is wet."

I'm a Very Important Person

Strange, for some reason, Sweet Potato is doing the same thing that Peanut used to do when he was about this age - walking around with the hands resting on the back of the waist like an old Chinese school teacher supervising his class, assuming an air and gait like he's the boss. Well, I guess the fact that a tiny tot like you is able to 'command' a house-full of adults each 3x bigger can be distorting your perspective of things in this world.

What is short for Moogi?

This is our pet dog, Moogi ... as sweet and playful as a puppy, though she's the oldest member in the family (8x7 y.o). Sweet Potato calls her "Gee". I guess "moo.." is reserved for the cow. And you would never guess what he chooses to call Auntie Wati ... "Da-da". I am totally baffled by that one, haven't the faintest clue what gave him that idea.

The Bros

Papa's broken armchair is my ...

The original version goes like this:

"Row row row your boat

Gently down the stream

Merrily Merrily Merrily

Life is but a dream"

I was so amused when I heard Peanut's adapted version. In case, you have difficulty making it out, here goes:

"And when you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream. Help!"

Communal Bath

Another first ...