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.

What I will remember about 2008

1. First time we did not do our tour of duty/visitations during CNY because both sons were ill with high fever.

2. First overseas holiday trip with Peanut - so looking forward to the next with both Peanut and Sweet Potato

3. First time I saw cherry blossoms in Washington, US

4. My mum turned 70 and had a dinner celebration

5. China hosted the Olympics - the opening show was awesome, lavishly extravagant - a sheer demonstration of China's political will and might.

6. F1 came to Singapore - urr, what was all the fuss for? To me, it was inconveniences. Just glad that my office is not at Suntec or nearby.

7. First visit with Sweet Potato to A&E at KK Children Hospital at 1am the day after Peanut's birthday celebration - the funniest coincidence was he was issued with '369' as registration number. The number in Hokkien reads ''Salakau" and is his nickname endearingly coined by my sister. It is the name of a secret society, not a flattering nickname, I'm afraid. See Wikipedia's entry for more details on the gang.

8. Babies die from milk laced with melamine and all sorts of diary products, biscuits and snacks were removed from supermarket shelves in Singapore and Hong Kong.

9. US has its first black President - what an inspiring victory speech. And about time that US has an intellectual and intelligent political leader. Hopefully, he'll go down in history as a wise and inspirational leader and not one who had a shoe (or 2) thrown at him.

10. 100 year-old companies disappear overnight and banks stop lending to one another. Totally unheard of.

11. Singapore lost its first citizen to acts of terrorism outside the country. It could have been anyone of us who travel quite a bit for work ... Time to top up life policies ...

What a year! Wonder what's in store in 2009 ...

The Bros