Starry Starry Night

13 November 2009

I was terribly excited .. doubly excited since both Peanut and Sweet Potato were performing at the school year-end concert. Last year, Peanut was in an Indian costume dancing to an Indian tune and though he hardly moved on stage, his fans in the audience (namely, his paternal grandma, Wati and I with a toddling S.P who had no clue what was happening) were extremely entertained by him and his fellow classmates.

One year on, though yet to completely overcome his stage fright, Peanut in his '60s rock' get-up was noticeably more confident and enjoyed himself as the night progressed. On the video playback, I could even see him mouthing the lyrics as they danced to the song "That Thing You Do". It's just so comical to have my 4 y.o singing, "Breaking my heart into a million pieces, like you always do-ooh".

Sweet Potato ... that one is a born performer. Totally unfazed by the bright lights and the loud music. First he explored the stage, studied the backdrop, wandered from one end to the other end, completely oblivious to what the rest of his class and his teachers were doing (one or two were dancing, the rest were just standing around in a blur ... they could barely remember the dance steps .. but really nobody cares, they just look too adorable even as still dummies - it takes an audience of parents to truly appreciate the dance item; we celebrate every move, mistakes included). After about 5 minutes, SP decided to dance and nothing could stop him henceforth. He clapped, he swayed, he jumped, he squatted, he swayed his bum, he waved and said "hello" to the audience. To top it all, when the dance ended and his fellow performers were huddling to move away from the stage, he stepped forward, took a bow and said, "Xie xie" ('thank you' in Mandarin). No photos to show because: (1) there was just too much movement! (2) I was totally unprepared for that last act; no one else did that the entire night (3) I was too busy/flustered with the video recorder and trying to coax it to record more as it kept flashing a red signal indicating that ... you guessed it ..... I had ran out of tape ...aaarggh!!!

Our Hang-Out

8 Nov 2009

This is where we hang out on some weekends. There is something for everyone:

- scenic lookout for grandma; this is a granite quarry which used to be mined in the 50s and has stopped production since the early 80s. Over the years, it has accumulated a large reservoir of water and one can spot fishes, terrapins, dragonflies.

- spider webs, squirrels, monitor lizards, monkeys, birds to satiate our yearning for mother nature for us urban folks. On our last trip there, we spotted a flying squirrel - it's a first for me. Sorry, no photos to show as it was atop a rather tall tree and against the bright sky, I couldn't take a clear shot with my handy (but not so high-tech) cam. When it glided from one tree to another, all the adults who gathered around voluntarily let out a uniform "wow" in awe. Quite a treat.

- playground with 2 long winding slides for the energetic boys

- good exercise for all. You should see the way the boys wolf down their meals after each trip. It is always a challenge to make sure the food is served fast enough and at the right temperature for quick consumption.

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.

Animal Farm

5 Nov 2009

SP's class made a trip to this place called "Animal Resort" at Seletar Farmway. It wasn't much of a resort. It was rather pathetic - one small pond with some fishes, a few cages of rabbits, some wandering geese, one big cage with 3 peacocks and a few chickens, 2 goats and 1 retired race horse (probably abandoned by its owner). Well, the trip served its purpose - my undivided dedicated attention for SP.

Update on SP's language skills: No short cut for this boy; he speaks in complete sentences, like "Kor Kor, don't cry; otherwise I go tell papa.", "Mama, look at me.", "I don't want Popo; Popo go home.", "Mama, can you carry me?", "Mama, I want the blue scissors.", "Mama, can I cut your hair?" And he is into words with 3 syllabus - 'otherwise', 'remember', 'emperor', 'butterfly', 'Monica' (the girl in Eric Carle's "Papa, Please get the Moon for me" - his fave bedtime story for the moment; he calls it 'Papa moon'). He says, "Coco lala" for Coca Cola.

He picks up songs on his own and spouts them in spurts out of the blue:

火车快飞, 火车快飞,

Fly, fly, fly, butterfly

Thomas, he's the cheeky one

He will dance spontaneously to all kinds of music and he has different dance moves for different rhythm and beat - shaking the shoulders, nodding the head, swaying his bottom, jumping, clapping.

Fun Fair 2009

10 October 2009

The 3 Musketeers

Peanut showing off his dinosaur tatoo

'I wear my sunglasses indoor'

Before ...

... and after

Rubber duckies put to good use

If Big can, I can too

'Come, let me help you'