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".

Barely Disguised Child Labour Exploits

Remember the deadly sexy car-wash scene in Charlie's Angels starring Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore? These are a lot more fun and that of course is the teacher's car:

The school has come up with this brilliant project in the new year - on the last Friday of the month, the kids get to do something fun. The car wash was in Jan. For Feb, they get to wash their outdoor toys:

Now I'm wondering what's in store for March. And I'm thinking maybe soon, the family can do without Wati, the helper. But first, I should make a request for a school fee reduction.

Show And Tell

This was his first show and tell in May last year, reading (from memory) the story "If you give a mouse a cookie"; meek and soft-spoken:












At his umpteenth show and tell early this year. The theme - When I was a baby; sure and confident:

His show and tell last week on culture; bold and having fun:

Gulp ... I'm finding it hard to reconcile this boy with my memories of the baby or toddler he used to be.

Just last weekend we attended our first birthday party celebration of his classmate this year. It's the first 'drop and fetch' party where we left him at his friend's house in the care of adults who are total strangers to him (and us) for 2 hours without any supervision by us. Ummm, how should I describe that feeling? It was like having the imaginery umbilical cord that used to connect my baby to me severed ... it's surreal, kind of liberating and yet feeling a sense of loss at the same time. Peanut had a fabulous time, helped himself freely to chips and M&Ms for lunch

... I am still reeling from the shocking realisation that my baby is going to turn 5 this year ... boohoo *sob*

Squelch Squirch Squelch Squirch

9 Feb

Another school excursion - this time to Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve Park. Unsurprisingly, S.P. was more excited about taking the bus than the visit itself:

Notice those yellow Wellingtons the boy in the background wore? Remind me of the ones I used to have when I was attending kindie. They were kinda popular back then together with the school bags which resembled suit cases (the hard case kind). Now I'm tempted to replicate that look for my 2 sons. Well, nostalgia strikes the old more often.

The park hasn't changed much since the last I visited decades ago. I suppose that means the park has been successful in achieving its goal of preservation. Wish I could show you a photo .. a gentle reminder to my girlfriend who owes me the digital copies of those old photos of years passed. Same covered and well maintained walkways built unobtrusively over swampy grounds, allowing visitors to be close to the natural state of the swamps, without getting any mud on them. Well, almost, for most except one visitor. This was me before I climbed over the fence and jumped onto (or rather sink my feet into) swampy soft mud to retrieve S.P's water bottle which fell from the side pocket of his bag - surely, they could have made the side pockets tighter to secure the bottle.

Y-U-C-K-S!!

This is a photo to capture the mud skippers and not exactly the place where I landed (which thankfully, did not have any water) but just to give you an idea ...

Nice and clean ...

And safely hanging over his neck .. just can't trust mummy anymore ..sigh

Nearly forgot to mention how his classmate, Tyra repeatedly told everyone, "S.P's mummy fell into the mud". That for me, was THE highlight of the trip! "Pray God, please let her forget before we returned to the school," I silently prayed. And the biggest challenge was not the climb up the high platform from the swampy mud. I assure you that the walkway did not look as high above the ground before I made the decision to "rescue the bottle". That was how Tyra's teacher so kindly explained to her that I did not fall into the mud. I really liked the way she put it - gives it a ring of debonair like a gentleman to the rescue of a damsel in distress. The biggest challenge was - NOT to spout any expletives!!!

For the rest of the group whose experience was less eventful, this was the highlight - a monitor lizard in our path at the exit of the park as we were walking towards the carpark:

Remember this game?

9 February

Blow wind blow
Blow what?
Blow all those whose names contain the letter "C"

And Peanut together with some of his friends ran into the centre of the ring.

Blow wind blow
Blow what?
Blow all those wearing pink clothings

And most of the girls ran into the centre of the ring.

Blow wind blow
Blow what?
Blow all those who have ten toes

There was a visible pause amongst all. Don't ask how many or who were counting their toes in their little minds. Then most, with a few who stood still, ran towards the centre.

Don't you miss some of these simple outdoor games we used to play as kids?