Monthly Archives

September 2011

lists you should paste on your fridge

A matter of perspective

September 30, 2011

PART THE FIRST: JAIL TIME

Truett: What’s that, momma, what’s that?

Me: It’s a bird cage, son. To keep birds so they don’t fly away.

Tru: No, it’s not a bird cage. It’s a jail. When Mickey Mouse is never listen to mommy, he will go to jail.

PART THE SECOND: WAIT, YOU’RE ACTUALLY LISTENING TO ME

You know how it is when you have kids. Most of the time when you tell them to do something, you don’t expect them to actually do it. Like when I have to say “NO” to that scoop of ice cream when they’re nursing a cold and I know that no amount of explaining will prevent the impending meltdown. But I still take the time to explain it rationally like they understand anyway. 9 out of 10 times it’s a futile endeavor.

But then there’s that one time when it works and they actually listen.

Truett is still as resistant to school as ever. Especially after our trip to Melbourne, he seems to have regressed and every morning, he’ll get very upset on the way to school. Then yesterday while he was coming up with various maladies to avoid going to school, I tried explaining that it was Gymnastics Thursday, his favorite day YAY WE”RE GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH FUN DOING SOMERSAULTS WOOT! He pondered a moment then nodded his head and said “ok, I will go to school.”

And I was all “GYMNASTICS IS AWESOME YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE…wait, did you just say ok? That’s it? No tantrums or tears? You mean I don’t have to juggle or do cartwheels to distract you from screaming? Just talking actually works? That’s new. Very well, um, great.

PART THE THIRD: RULES? WHAT RULES?

The frustrating thing about playing with kids is that they don’t have any rules. But the great thing about playing with kids is also that they don’t have any rules.

Blame it on my lack of creativity but when I make a head, there’s got to be a specified number of eyes and ears and mouth, even if that head belongs to a potato.

When it was their turn to make the head, they came up with this.

Which is genius actually because what do you know, a potato does have a lot of eyes.

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If the world ever needs a supreme emperor princess, I got one right here

September 28, 2011

I suspect deep down inside, Kirsten thinks that she’s the supreme emperor princess of the universe. Not the kind that just sits around having grapes fed to her but the really hands on sort. The sort that tells everyone exactly what they should be doing and how they should be doing it.

I don’t know where she got it from (certainly not me) but it is apparent that this girl of mine loves to get her bossy on. And it’s so much more effective because she looks so small and unassuming but then BAM, she unleashes her boss attack.

People usually don’t believe it until they see her in action.

Tru: Mommy can we go to the playground?

Kirsten: CANNOT! Kor kor you cannot go playground ok!

Tru: I’m talking to mommy. Mommy can we go playground?

Kirsten: *sighs heavily* Haiyah, ok fine fine fine. Come I bring you to the playground.

***

Kirsten: Duck duck, come here!

Kirsten: Duck duck, where are you? I said COME HERE!

Me: Sweetie, you have to go find your duck, she can’t *come here*.

Kirsten: Duck duck, you are very naughty, I angry you. ANGRY.

***

Tru: Mei mei, you want a gummy?

Kirsten: No, not now. After your dinner then you can eat gummy.

Tru: Can, we can eat one gummy now then after dinner we can have some more.

Kirsten: You listen to me, I said only after dinner. If not you go naughty corner.

***

Kirsten: Daddy, I want milk.

Me: Ok, I’ll make milk for you.

Kirsten: No you cannot make. Daddy must make.

Me: What do you mean I cannot make? I can make your milk anytime I want.

Kirsten: Mommy you cannot make my milk, you need to hug me.

Me: Nice move, young lady. Very smooth. Fine, I will hug you but only because I want to.

***

Occasionally, she even bosses herself around, which was slightly alarming when it first happened but then I realized that I used to talk to myself all the time so I guess this sort of behavior is fairly normal for my kid.

Kirsten: Can I blow bubbles?

Kirsten (alter ego): Saturday you can go. You want to go on Saturday, yes?

Kirsten: Yes, Saturday we can go.

Me: Ok great, it’s like I don’t even have to talk anymore.

***

PS. I’m giving away one Let’s Rock! Elmo toy on the Mother, Inc Facebook page. This is one badass rockin’ Elmo that you want to get for your kid (or yourself), so head on over to join.

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not feeling so supermom

Return of the Sleep Tyrants

September 26, 2011

Right from the time the kids were born, we were certain co-sleeping wasn’t going to work for us. From a very practical perspective, there just wasn’t enough space and while the idea of sleeping with a baby seems so irresistibly sweet, the actual doing is considerably more uncomfortable.

The sweetness lasts for 3 minutes and after that, they turn into little sleep tyrants. They do windmills on the bed, monopolise every inch of space and before I know it, I’m squeezing myself into a 50cm strip of space on my bed.

Occasionally, their diaper leaks and I find myself waking up in a puddle of pee. That’s not my own. Not that I wake up in my own pee regularly (or at all) but it’s so much worse waking up in someone else’s pee. If I had to wake up in a puddle of pee, I’d choose my own any day. Just like if I ever got stung by a jellyfish, I’d much rather pee on myself than have someone else do it.

So from the beginning, we were diligent in getting them to sleep on their own beds. We did up a gorgeous nursery, bought them supercool toddler beds, gave them cold turkey and taught them to sleep on their own, feeling mighty proud of ourselves.

But…and you know there’s a but because there’s ALWAYS a but. The ‘but’ sometimes comes in the form of a dark stormy night when the kids wake up crying with nightmares. Or a persistent virus that requires through-the-night supervision. Or just a moment of weakness coupled with puppy dog eyes.

And when the ‘but’ happens, everything goes belly up very quickly.

Which explains why the nursery has been unused for several months now. The latest sleeping arrangement involves 2 mattresses laid out in our room every night and you’d think it’s for the kids to sleep but more often than not, we find ourselves on the mattresses while the kids usurp our bed.

We’ve been wanting to restart the sleep training but the though of having to sit in their room for hours through the night terrifies me. On good days, I get to crawl into bed at midnight and an hour in, I have to stumble my way into the nursery because one of them is awake and asking to sleep in our room. So let’s see, option 1 is to sit there with them till they fall asleep or option 2, cave and let them come over so we can all get some decent sleep.

Right now, we’re even contemplating turning the nursery into our secret back up sleeping room but they’re probably going to invade that too.

Seriously, how do you guys do it?

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travelling

Penguins big and little

September 23, 2011

I’ll be doing one last post on Melbourne and I’ve saved my favorite for the last.

Well it’s hard to really pick a favorite because the entire trip was filled with the most incredible experiences and seeing all those places through the kids’ eyes have been just awesome. I hope you enjoyed reading all the posts as much as I did writing them.

Anyhow, top of the list goes to Phillip Island Penguin Parade. This phenomenon happens only at nightfall and Phillip Island is one of the few places in the world where you can get up close to witness the Fairy Penguins crossing the beach on the way back to their burrows on the island.

They don’t allow photography on the beach, so these stock images come courtesy of Tourism Victoria.

The cover of night gives them a bit of camouflage as they scuttle across the beach back home and apparently, it’s the most terrifying thing they have to do in their lives.

Because they’re so tiny, it takes them many steps to make it across and in that time, they’re most susceptible to predator attacks. And it’s not like the poor penguins are physically equipped to run very fast so it’s very cute to see them put in so much effort to make that one crossing. Some of them cross halfway, then freak out and run back to the ocean.

The kids both fell asleep just as the penguins came out so they missed the whole thing. We tried waking them up like “Kids want to see penguins? Wake up quick!!” Tru took one look at them, then climbed back into his stroller to sleep. Kirsten woke up to peer at them for a while and decided to throw her duck duck over the barricade “to share with the penguins.” Good thing the ranger managed to rescue it or that would have marked the unfortunate end of yet another duck.

Speaking of penguins, we saw some King Penguins over at the Melbourne aquarium. They’re much bigger than the little ones (yeah, DUH!) but no less cute.

Also, I realized I haven’t talked much about the first leg of the trip with the other bloggers. So just a quick shout out to the folks at Tourism Victoria, OMY and Jetstar, who went to great lengths to make the trip unforgettable. And to the rest of the bloggers who went for the trip, your company made it so much more special.

One last thing, Episode 3 of Olay 360 is out here, bringing you the importance of hydration and tips on what to eat for healthy skin by Dr Leslie Tay.

Alright, that’s the lot. Have a good weekend, folks!

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travelling

St Kilda: Checking out the ‘burbs

September 22, 2011

When we stayed in St Kilda, we took the time to explore the neighborhood a little. It’s an inner city suburb, about 15 minutes out from the city and located right next to the bay. Sort of like our Marine Parade, with the beach on one side and a whole street of cafes and bars on the other.

I hear it’s got a thriving red light district but we didn’t see anything during our walks around town in the evenings, which was good, I guess. We did get yelled at by a bunch of white boys as they drove past us but then again, they could have been yelling at the cat nearby so I didn’t like chuck a rock at them or anything.

Besides that, everyone else seemed really nice and I liked that the streets were buzzing with energy.

We checked out the Makers Market on Saturday morning to do a spot of shopping. Unlike flea markets where you can sell all sorts of junk, everything sold at the Makers Market has to be well, made by the sellers. So there was stuff like hand-sewn dresses, paintings, crafts, jewelry and even soap.

In many of the stalls, the owners were sitting there making new stuff so I spent some time watching a really sweet lady sew a dress on the spot. She’s done it so many years that it takes her 20 minutes to complete one dress from start to finish.

I wanted to get one for Kirsten but the one I wanted was $70AUD, so I figured I’d try to make one myself. Seemed easy enough when she was doing it, so says me who got an F for my Home Econs. An actual F. All because the dress I made looked more like a moo moo. I tried negotiating my way into an E by telling my teacher that fashion was subjective and I’d wear it for a whole day if she gave didn’t fail me. She obviously couldn’t see my genius.

Anyway, back to St Kilda. I’m wrapping it up with pictures of the kids admiring flowers. They usually only see the tiny yellow ones in Singapore so when they saw all the different varieties of flora in Melbourne, they went a little mental like “SEE, PINK FLOWER! YELLOW! WHITE! PURPLE! SO MANY FLOWERS!!!”

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Rooming with Roomorama

September 21, 2011

I tried different sorts of accommodation options when I was Melbourne, ranging from the standard hotel room to a mountain lodge to an apartment and I have to say that my favorite was hands down, the apartment.

That’s the one I booked through Roomorama and it was a 2-bedroom apartment in St Kilda. I’d never tried home apartment rentals before this because I didn’t even know that had such a thing to begin with. I was familiar with the commercial studio apartments but this one was literally one of a kind. Each apartment on the site was done up differently and owned by different people so there was that personal, homely touch.

I loved the decor in our St Kilda apartment. Dark wooden floors, classy modern furnishings, a full kitchen with a washer and dryer, and 2 outdoor patios – one out front and one at the back.

We would whip up a feast of bacon, sausage, eggs and toast every morning and have it outside on the patio even though it was freezing cold. The kids would run around the courtyard picking fallen flowers to warm up while we sat back and sipped our hot coffees, feeling like life couldn’t get any better.

 

When the kids got too cold, they’d grab their cereal and run back into the apartment to take shelter for a while before coming back out again. This here is Kirsten finding herself a nice spot beside the heater and munching her cereal looking extremely contented.

And why yes, those are indeed clothes pegs we used on her hair.

I think the kids also really appreciated the living space. They had plenty of room to play hide and seek, peekaboo and pretty much go crazy in the apartment.

So much so that on the second day, the owners came by asking if we were having a party because the neighbors had complained about having too much noise. Then they saw the kids tearing around the house and we were all “yeah, they’re having a party alright.” Ok, to be fair, it was a nice quiet residential location so we did try to keep it down after that.

The amenities were also very good. It was thoughtful of them to include plush towels, toiletries, coffee and snacks so we had everything we needed for the stay right there. It really did feel like home.

The entire apartment sleeps 4 and cost only $179 a night, which is so much cheaper and more comfortable than getting 2 rooms in a hotel. Best part is that every new experience with Roomorama will be something different and I’m already browsing the site for ideas for our next trip.

Huge thanks to Roomorama for a sublime experience.

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