Monthly Archives

July 2011

picture perfect

Dancing on hilltops

July 18, 2011

After a divine brunch of truffle oil scrambled eggs on Saturday, we stumbled upon a hidden gem tucked away in a little nook near Bukit Timah Saddle Club. We did the only thing we could when one makes an unexpected discovery, which was to spend the rest of the morning dancing on hilltops, flapping imaginary wings and rolling down hills.

It was literally an off-the-beaten-path adventure – the very best kind.

For once, the weather was cool (explains the long sleeves) and the grassy slopes made it feel like a scene right out from The Sound of Music. Except without the Sound or the Music. Or Julie Andrews. Which basically makes it a pirated version with terrible sound. But with much cuter kids.

I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

There were these huge leaves lying on the ground just asking to be picked up and turned into wings. They were happy to oblige, as always.

Ok, that’s the lot. Have a good one this week!

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to Kirsten with love

Happy birthday, Princess.

July 14, 2011

To my Special Angel Princess,

Happy Birthday! Considering that this is only the second time you’re having a birthday, you rock it like a pro. You soak up all the attention and beam from ear to ear every time we sing you the Birthday Song – I’ve lost count after 35 times.

It feels a little weird that you’re just only turning 2 because it seems like you’ve been 2 for the longest time. It doesn’t bother you that you’re way shorter than everyone your age and the doctor says your height is only in the 10th percentile for 2-year-olds. But that’s cool because inside that tiny body is a big girl.

Your vocabulary is astounding and thanks to your grammar police of a brother, you’re pretty sharp in that department too. I’d love to take credit for that but sometimes, I don’t even know how you pick up words like consolidate and devastating. My money is on Disney Junior but then again, you listen to our conversations and surprise us by asking very insightful questions.

This time last year, I was so sure you were going to be the sweet, demure type. You used to sit quietly and observe all the action around you but in the past 12 months, you’ve somehow managed to find a way to be part of the action. You instigate your brother to climb the grilles and throw all the rice on the floor. And then you make him giggle at how hilarious it is.

When we’re out shopping, you couldn’t care less that we’re not behind you. We’ve tried hiding behind pillars while following you at a distance and you’ve never once turned back to look for us. One time at Ikea, you realized that we were nowhere to be found and you continued sauntering around holding your doggie plushie without a care in the world. Even though you couldn’t see me, I was following close enough to hear you tell your dog “See, we got no more mommy and daddy already, they’re lost. It’s ok, I bring you go kai kai.” In contrast, your brother watches us like a hawk to make sure we’re always within sight so he doesn’t get lost.

I suppose it’s a good thing that you’d be able to survive even if you got lost, but please don’t. Mommy needs you more than you know.

I love everything about you (yes, even the intentional shrieking you’ve perfected just to get your way), but the one thing I love most is how you immediately rush to the rescue every time you see someone hurting. You want to go hug the hobo sleeping at the void deck because he’s sick and you offer your last french fries to the troubadour along the sidewalk. Ok, so I exploit it once in a while to get extra hugs and kisses but that’s pretty much fair play for being your mother.

Have a smashing year ahead, baby girl. And always remember that Daddy and Mommy loves you an awful lot.

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i embarrass myself sometimes, lists you should paste on your fridge, not feeling so supermom, stuff best described as not safe for parents, unqualified parenting tips

Mom, inadequate

July 12, 2011

Question: Anyone else ever felt as inadequate about being a mom as I do? I mean, I love kids but I’m terrible at teaching them phonics or nutrition or how to make the toilet or being responsible and all that.

Last week, I’ve been trying to get Kirsten to pee in the toilet. I psyched her up about being a big girl and wearing Hello Kitty panties instead of diapers and put her on the toilet bowl. She was all “mommy do” so ok, I figured since kids learnt through imitation, I’d do a live demo for her.

And she just stood there and laughed – nice one, baby girl.

It doesn’t really help that every other mother I know seems to have their act together. They potty-train their newborns and their kids can draw a straight line by 11 months. I’m obviously way behind because I’m 29 and still can’t draw a straight line. After that, they move on to advanced topics like feeding organic vegetables that they’ve grown by hand in their backyard and teaching their kids to perform cardiothoracic surgery.

Then I come across sites like these and I feel so. much. better.

I’ve picked out some of my favorites here. I may or may not have done these at some point.

1. Everyone thinks I’m such a great mom for teaching my daughter how to read already. It wasn’t me. It was the Leapfrog pen. I had no idea she could read.

2. Since it’s summertime, about once a week I take the kids for ice cream… for lunch.

3. I forget to brush my 1- and 2-year-olds’ teeth. I am not sure why it’s so hard for me to remember, but it’s a good thing that these teeth will fall out.

4. At the end if the day, my needs are really simple: To be able to shit in peace.

5. At the end of a long challenging day, I’m apt to call bedtime half and hour early. It’s not like they can tell time yet.

6. I used bandaids to cover my nipples when I weaned my children. See? All gone.

7. I joined a gym just for the free daycare. I drop the kids off and read magazines and blogs in the locker room.

8. Questions of the day: 1) How did the pepperoni get stuck to the ceiling? 2) Why didn’t gravity kick in & make it fall? 3) How did I not notice this? 4) When did we have pizza last?

9. I confiscated my teenager’s stash of pot, gave her a lecture, and have been smoking it ever since myself.

10. Last week, my hairdresser asked how far along I was. I’m not pregnant, but I pretended to be 4 months. I can never go back there.

11.  Mother dropping her kid for a sleepover at my house: “No food dye, no dairy, just soy milk, only organic food, and we don’t eat ANY fast food.” I let them eat all the junk they wanted. They seemed fine.

12. My kids hardy bathe in the summer. The pool totally counts.

13. When my daughter asked me what comes after a trillion, I told her “a gazillion.” Um, we are homeschoolers. Not supposed to just make shit up.

14. My baby is not spoiled, she just doesn’t like you.

15. I confess that most days, I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. Everyone thinks I have it all together — good wife, good mom, successful career — but I really don’t. I’m ready to stop pretending to be perfect now.

What’s yours?

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Disney Magic

Yo Ho Ho Let’s Go!

July 11, 2011

Lovely Monday morning to you. This is going to be an exciting week, with the final installment of the Harry Potter series blockbustering its way to our screens. I’ve just reread the book for the 4th time and the trailers are looking epic. Cannot wait.

But first, a quick recap of what turned out to be a fantastic weekend. Yesterday was the launch party of Disney Junior at Sentosa’s Sapphire Pavilion because today, Disney Junior debuts on Starhub’s Channel 311. Getting up before 9 on a Sunday morning is a rarity in our house but when the kids heard the 2 words “Disney” and “Party”, their eyes popped open and they jumped out of bed in double quick time.

It was a beautiful morning for a day at the beach. Balloons, check. Palm trees swaying gently in the wind, check. Soft sand, check. Loads of sunshine, double check.

Plus, there were pirates. Well, just one at first but he was a really cute one.

Before the morning was over, his jolly crew was joined by 2 spritely young buccaneers.

Who took to their new pirating duties with much aplomb. They got busy looking for treasure, digging them up and trying to bury others.

And this is the point where I should probably end with a piratey phrase but unlike them, I don’t actually have any real pirate training so you’ll have to make do with a Yo Ho Ho!

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side effects of motherhood

Where do I sign up for the Hello Kitty revolution?

July 8, 2011

So obviously you guys were all in favor of baby girl’s obsession with all things Hello Kitty (well, thanks y’all…)

Which is just as well because the new swimset I ordered from Old Navy just came in the mail. She tore open the package and made me put it on for her immediately. Just so that she could prance around in her “OMG IT’S SO CUTE I’M GOING TO SCREAM” rashguard all morning. In the living room.

Every minute or so, she looks down at her chest to pat and admire the exquisite beauty that is a snorkeling Hello Kitty. “Oohh the cat got hat! (um FYI, that’s a snorkel mask babe but who cares about such trifles in comparison with a Hello Kitty)” “The cat go swimming like Kirsten!” “OH I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS OFF TILL I TURN 12 YAYYY!”

So a day after I successfully made her wear the “very nice” swim cover-up, it’s been relegated back to its unfortunate place at the bottom of the drawer.

It’s the Hello Kitty revolution all over again.

BTW, that sound you hear is me resigning to my fate. I’m going out to buy myself a pair of Hello Kitty crocs. You know what they say: if you can’t beat them, wear Hello Kitty.

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side effects of motherhood

Of swimwear, shoes and badly-named cats

July 7, 2011

I got this irresistible swim cover-up for baby girl a while back but she has been resisting all efforts to put it on with a dismissive “It’s not nice, I don’t like it!”

All this time, it’s been sitting at the bottom of her drawer because I knew better than to argue fashion with someone whose idea of very nice involved as many Hello Kitties as possible.

In her world of fashion, anything that has 1 Hello Kitty falls into the “nice” category. Anything that has 2 Hello Kitties is “so cute, I like it.” and anything with more than 5 Hello Kitties is “VERY NICE MOMMY YOU BUY NOW!”

Till this day, I still struggle to see the appeal of a cat whose name is made up entirely of a generic feline greeting. I mean, I would never name my child Hello Human unless I was certain she would be the last surviving human in the face of a martian invasion. In which case, I suppose it would be appropriate and somewhat cool.

But back to the swim cover-up. My little fashionista pulled this out from her drawer, stared at it for a minute, then decided it was time to promote it to the category of “ok fine, you can wear this for me.”

We had to compromise on the footwear but it’s still a step in the right direction. Baby steps. It’s all about baby steps.

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stuff best described as not safe for parents, unqualified parenting tips

Asian Parenting Faux Pas: Redux

July 5, 2011

A while back, I did a list of Top 5 Asian Parenting Faux Pas (Passes?) and one of them was to threaten kids with scary uncles. Being one to practice what I preach, I’ve made it a point never to scare them with policemen or hobos.

Regarding the former, we tell them that policemen are very kind and helpful, so if they ever get lost or need to rescue a cat from a tree, they should not hesitate to approach a friendly neighborhood policeman. As for hobos, we buy them a cup of coffee and remind them to say no to drugs.

The other thing you should know is that my son has a thing for big red buttons. Like the power ON/OFF button on remotes, or the emergency alarm button in the lifts, which he has to press repeatedly. It’s like he can’t help it and if left to his own devices, would probably end up as an evil villain with a secret lair filled with giant red apocalyptic buttons. We’re getting him tested for villainous tendencies.

Several nights ago, we were at the airport doing our usual rounds and on our way down an escalator, Tru suddenly reached out and pressed the emergency stop button. The one that gets you fined like $5,000,000 or thrown in jail or something.

Naturally, the escalator came to an abrupt halt and the husband said “OH NO TRU! You can’t press that! Now we’ve got to explain to the police what happened.” Before he completed his sentence, Tru promptly burst into tears and in the minute that followed, proceeded to have a complete meltdown. In between sobs, I could make out the words “I’m sorry…don’t want police to catch me.”

As far as we can remember, we’ve never even once used the police as a threat but he must have overheard us talking when we got that ill-fated warning letter from the police.

We hugged him and said it’s ok, we would never let anyone (no, not even the police) catch him. Like if there was a grizzly bear attack, the bear would have to first eat the husband, followed by…ok, let’s hope the bear gets sufficiently nourished by then and decides to lie down for a bit. Or if anyone needed to take the fall and go to jail, it would be the husband first, then me. Although the husband says I should take this one because I could blog in jail anyway or maybe even find the time to write a masterpiece like Jeffrey Archer.

Anyway, Tru didn’t seem entirely convinced because he spent the rest of the evening pretending to sleep in the stroller looking noticeably subdued.

I like to consider life’s episodes as lessons and this one would be to never use the police to threaten my son. Or to buy a police uniform. I’m still pondering that one.

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