Monthly Archives

December 2011

Disney Magic

The pint-sized pirates of Neverland

December 13, 2011

One of our favorite activities is to play dress up. Ok, it’s one of my favorite activities because it’s low on mess and high on cuteness. All I need to do is dress them up and leave the rest to their imagination – which they have a lot of.

Recently, their theme of choice has been pirates. And not just any pirate, it’s got to be Jake and the Neverland Pirates. It’s easy enough for me because all I need are 2 bandanas and 2 rubber bands for Kirsten’s ponytails. I tried adding eye patches for a more dramatic effect but they duly informed me that “Jake does not wear a patch, momma. Only bad pirates wear patches.”

I told them that there’s no such thing as a good pirate because pirates by definition are supposed to pillage and plunder and then they got upset, like “NO! JAKE IS A GOOD PIRATE HE HELPS PEOPLE!!” so I gave it a rest. I obviously need to watch more tv to keep up.

Meet Jake and Izzy.

Tru’s hair could do with a little wax and I’ve been looking for a wooden pirate sword to complete the look but believe it or not, it’s surprisingly hard to find. So in the meantime, I’m going to attempt to make one out of paper.

Incidentally, I found out during a Disney lunch thing last week that there’s a Disney Junior minisite called For Grown Ups with lots of Disney themed resources for parents. For party ideas, there are ready-made patterns for Jake’s sword, treasure chest and gold doubloons so you can throw a pirate party without spending a fortune on decor. Even if you’re not having a party, there are coloring pages, activity books and other cool stuff that you can print out to keep your toddler occupied. I’m not crafty enough to design my own templates so these are great.

In other news, I’ve got more Hipstamatic Happiness. It’s a day late and a panel short but otherwise, still as good.

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a spot of singapore, picture perfect, playgrounds!

There’s no Friday like Special Friday

December 12, 2011

Last Friday was supposed to be like any other Friday. The kids had school. I had work to finish, errands to run and chores to clear but I didn’t feel like doing any of that. So I woke up and decided to declare it Special Friday.

Because I can.

On Special Friday, the kids get to skip school, I get to skip everything else and we all get to go out for a day of fun. It just so happened that a good friend was having Special Friday too so we packed the kids and spent the day at Jurong Bird Park together.

The kids were thrilled out of their minds when I told them. “NO SCHOOL TODAY? AND WE’RE GOING TO THE BIRD PARK?? WITH OUR BEST FRIENDS??? YAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!”

Kirsten has a thing for cows so when she saw these cows at the entrance, my little Kao ran up to them to smother them with hugs and kisses.

According to the brochure, the bird park is home to some 5,000 birds and 380 species but the whole time we were there, we saw a grand total of like 4 species. Which were these macaws.

A bunch of penguins.

Some flamingos.

And this statue bird that I was convinced was a statue but turned out to be a live bird. It just stood (sat?) there and glared at us with its little beady statue eyes and only when we moved away, it turned its head and eyeballed us until we were out of sight.

If I ever need a scary statue, I’d skip the gargoyle and go with this scary bird instead. Folks are going to walk past and go “cheh, just another scary-looking statue” and as they walk away, the bird will slowly turn its head to look at them and then BAM, they will freak the hell out. Mission accomplished.

So anyway, after seeing a handful of birds, we got to the new water play area called Birds of Play and that was the end of our birdwatching plans.

We asked the kids the obligatory question “Would you like to see more birds or stop and play?” and they were all “Are you kidding? Do you not see this magnificent structure? GIMME WATERRRRR!!!”

And that’s how we spent the rest of the day. Or rather, that’s how the kids spent the rest of the day while we stood around trying not to get wet. It was totally more fun that it sounds.

Like all outings, it was exhausting but I’m really starting to like Special Friday. We’ll have to do this again sometime.

PS. I’m having a Hot Wheels Wall Tracks giveaway on the Mother, Inc Facebook page. Contest closes tomorrow!

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i embarrass myself sometimes, lists you should paste on your fridge, stuff best described as not safe for parents

Booger Bites

December 9, 2011

Boogers. We’ve all eaten some. And by we I really mean me.

I was about 4 and I had discovered the simple satisfaction that is nose-picking. I didn’t care much for cleanliness in general but I was um, picky about nostril hygiene. The quality of my life at that point was easily determined by how booger-free my nose was. The problem was that all this gold-digging left me with a by-product that I had to dispose of.

I could smear it, wipe it, flick it, wash it away or roll it around while thinking of more efficient ways to discard it.

It wasn’t long before it occurred to me to eat it. It seemed like such a good idea at that time because it did after all come from my nose and the proximity to my mouth made it practically edible. It’s all connected inside anyway, isn’t it?

I have to admit that my first booger bite wasn’t great. It wasn’t terrible but just very meh. With all the other snack options available to me, eating booger was way down the list, occupying the spot below wholemeal bread but above celery sticks.

The response I elicited from my bite of booger, however, was far more interesting. Grown ups seemed to find it a vile and disgusting habit. Some told me that it would give me a tummy ache and others even told me that it would make worms grow in my stomach. To the 4-year-old me, it was equal parts fascinating and terrifying. While I wasn’t entirely keen on the idea of having worms grow in my stomach, the rebel in me was already plotting to make it a regular snack option just to call their bluff.

I’ve since stopped it (seriously, I have) but it took my several years before I realized that me eating booger just to disprove a theory was dumb on so many levels. Plus it wasn’t even that nice.

Several days ago, I spotted Truett picking his nose and putting it in his mouth so now I’m considering my options on how to deal with the situation.

1. Leave him to outgrow it. I’m fairly confident that the taste of booger pales in comparison to Ruffles chips and ice-cream. which means that if I offer him tastier options, this gets phased out quick and easy. But then again, he might find it delicious and never stop.

2. Scare him into change. I could go with “son, that’s a vile and disgusting habit. You will get worms in your stomach that will eat their way up to your mouth” but off the top of my head, I just came up with many viler and more disgusting habits that will require this approach. I should probably save this for the day he attempts to eat someone else’s booger.

3. Tell him my booger story so he doesn’t have to learn the hard way. But any story that begins with “mommy used to eat booger too...” doesn’t make me sound very credible.

4. Get some worms for a live demonstration. It’s likely that my kids inherited my rebellious streak so this will probably backfire.

5. Tell him to stop it because mommy says so. Hah. Right, if only this ever works.

Any ideas?

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kids inc

How Spiderman got his claw

December 6, 2011

The husband has a little-known quirk when it comes to counting with his fingers. I first discovered this peculiarity not long after we started dating. We had a *study session in the campus canteen to mug for our finals and we were testing each other on one of those media theories I never really understood.

To illustrate point 1, he raised his thumb to form a “good” sign – which was fine and totally normal.

To illustrate point 2, he raised his thumb and index finger – also normal.

At point 3, he raised his thumb, index finger and middle finger. Which led me to assume that at point 4, he would also raise his fourth finger like most normal people would.

But at point 4, he raised his first 3 fingers and his pinky, like he was making a claw.

Me: What’s that?

Husband: *still holding the claw* What’s what? You didn’t understand content analysis?

Me: No, that. *pointing to the claw*

Husband: *still holding the claw* You mean point 4?

Me: Seriously, your point 4 is the spiderman claw?

Husband: How do you do point 4, genius?

Me: Like normal people do…with the pinky down. Or with the thumb down.

Husband: I am holding up 4 fingers, that counts as 4 right?

Me: I don’t think it works that way. That’s distracting, like you’re missing a finger. Just do this. *held up my first 4 fingers with the pinky down*

Husband: I can’t. My fingers hurt.

Me: Ok stop it, you’re making it worse. Now it’s like a chicken claw. How about you don’t ever count with your fingers?

***

What I forgot to add was that he’s also not supposed to teach the kids how to count with their fingers. Because this is what happens.

*By study session, I mean a session where we engaged in intellectual discourses on media theories instead of say, watching Will Farrell videos on youtube.

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kids in motion, precious moments, Videos I dig

By far the best rendition of the Macarena ever

December 5, 2011

Most preschool performances have several things in common – mediocre stage direction, abysmal choreography, average lighting and a very distracted cast. For the most part, it doesn’t even look much like a performance.

But then they usually also have the most enthusiastic audience.

Because there’s a universal rule of parenting that we all adhere to: “When your kid puts up a performance, you scream and cheer like it’s the best thing you’ve ever seen.”

Which is what we did last Friday when the kids had their year-end school performance. I’ve watched it 20 times and it still cracks me up.

And here’s a dose of Hipstamatic Happiness to kick start your Monday.

On another note, the awesome TaoShu iPad app is out and you can download it here. The kids really love TaoShu – till this day, these are the only Chinese books they will allow me to read.

Also, it’s good to have Petrina Kow back on air every Monday with Joe Augustin. Tune in to Lush 99.5 to check it out.

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a spot of singapore

Kampung Kids

December 1, 2011

Ever since our trip to Melbourne, the kids have been wanting to visit farms to hang out with animals. So we searched the Internet and we found a place called Kid’s Kampong, which is Malay for “native village”. Which basically means a place with lots of old stuff and animals.

The entrance fee was $1 each, and it includes a bowl of animal feed, like fish pellets, rabbit hay and carrots.

When we walked in, there was a huge pond with lots of flappy fish. These fish seemed to be really hungry and they swam right up to the kids waiting for food. Some of them were practically on dry land, flapping around for a pellet. Fish are so not my thing, unless they’re crispy and golden brown with a side of fries.

Tru knew this handful of food had magical fish-drawing powers and he held it carefully, rationing it out one at a time instead of flinging the whole thing into the pond. Some of the fish would eat right of his hand and Kirsten would be all “ewww I don’t like the fish to touch me.”

The ducks were kind of cute, with their yellow bills and orange feet. And they have kind eyes, unlike chickens who have crazy eyes.

If a duck could talk, it’d be all friendly-like, with a “Hey, how’s it goin’? I’ll be over here chilling out having a swim and a sandwich.”

If a chicken could talk, it’d say “I’mma bite your ass. Because I’m crazy.”

There were also bunnies, which were surprisingly clean. Like this little guy that I almost wanted to bring home.

A morning of fun for 4 dollars? Totally worth it.

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