Yearly Archives

2012

Disney Magic, kids in motion

Special School Day Surprise

February 16, 2012

One of my best childhood memories was when my parents would whisk us off for a surprise outing on an otherwise ordinary school day. We’d be in the middle of an typically boring day, expecting to do boring stuff like go home, take a nap or mess around with some crayons, when they would show up all badass like “ok kids get in the car, we’re going out somewhere fun.”

“Really? We’re going out NOW? On a Wednesday afternoon? OMG YOU’RE SO AWESOME!”

Even if we ended up going somewhere lame like McDonald’s or any old playground, it would still turn out to be the Funnest Outing In The History Of The World.

So I try to do that from time to time with the kids. Sneak them out somewhere fun in the middle of the afternoon just because, and then watch their little minds struggle to cope with all that awesomeness. I usually get to spend the rest of the day feeling like a rockstar and making them do whatever I say.

Like yesterday, I picked them up from school and we took a trip down to the Science Centre for a special Disney event. Mai and the rest of the Disney team had prepared a preview screening of an upcoming movie called Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Space Adventure. It’ll be launched on the Disney Junior Channel on Feb 20 and by movie, I mean a longer-than-usual 40-minute episode.

It was so cute because all the kids were gathered in the front row to pilot test the movie.

Being the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse connoisseurs they are, my kids found themselves prime seats and got really comfortable for the screening. They have to have their blankets whenever they watch TV, don’t ask.

While the kids watched, the adults had our own version of fun, which included some food and lots of conversation. It was nice to catch up with some of the other parenting bloggers without having to chase after the kids and yell at them every so often.

I’m not going to be able to tell you what the movie was about because I spent a total of 3.27 minutes watching it. All I know is there’s going to be a space parallel universe green alien Mickey and Pluto is from the planet, wait for it…Pluto. Didn’t see that one coming, did you? But the kids loved it and they’ve made clear their intentions to watch it when it airs.

Judging by the looks on their faces, it was enough fun for a midweek school day surprise.

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love bites

Happy Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2012

Ahhh, Valentine’s Day.

Over the years, we’ve learnt to navigate our way around this very delicate day that is Valentine’s.

The first year we were dating, the husband (being the sweet romantic that he is) went the whole nine yards. Flowers, chocolates, a movie and the usual overpriced set meal dinner reservations. I appreciated the thought, even though I didn’t really know what to do with the flowers except to put them at the corner of my hostel room. Incidentally, a week later, they produced the most unbelievable stench I could imagine and I chucked them out discreetly. I wasn’t really a fan of chocolates (give me chips anytime) and we somehow managed to miss our dinner because our movie ran late.

So the first time we spent February 14th together, we had Burger King for dinner.

He looked absolutely mortified that we missed our reservations and the best part of that day for me was laughing over our missed dinner plans and making him admit that this whole Valentine’s Day shebang was a complete rip off. I also told him never to buy me flowers again. Instead, an ipod or a tech gadget was a more acceptable gift option.

For many years after that, we had Burger King for dinner every Valentine’s Day, until we mutually agreed to ditch the sentimentalism and have Carl’s Junior instead because they have better mushroom burgers.

We’re romantic like that.

To be fair, he does make up for it a week or two later with a nice dinner or a short getaway just so we have time to stare into each others’ eyes and whisper sweet nothings.

Now after having spent 10 Valentine’s Days together, with 2 kids and a third on the way, I dare say that I’m starting to appreciate the day a little more than I used to.

When we were younger, we had all the time in the world to be sweet and romantic throughout the year. Who needs Valentine’s Day when it can be Valentine’s Day every day of the year? Every week, we were out for movies and dinners. We spent hours watching Days of Our Lives and making jokes about the bad acting because it was an excuse for us to spend time together. Every day, we felt like we were in love.

But now that we barely even have time for a quiet dinner without getting thronged by kids, it’s nice to have a day to stop and have some time all to ourselves.

Sure, it’s commercialized and gimmicky and terribly overpriced, but there’s magic fairy dust in the air today. And we remember that in the midst of all this craziness, we’re just two kids who are in love.

We’re probably having Carl’s Junior for dinner tonight, and whatever you’re having, I hope you have a good one.

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the breast things in life are free

Park and Ride

February 13, 2012

When Truett woke up on Saturday morning, the first question he asked was “What day is it today?”

“It’s Saturday,” I said without opening my eyes. “And on Saturdays Mommy gets to sleep in ok.”

“SATURDAY?? YAY YAYYY YAYYYYYYY there’s no school today let’s go to the park!” he yelled as he jumped around the room, making a royal din.

By this time, Kirsten had woken up and was joining in the celebrations.

“No park…tired…need sleep…” I said as I pulled the pillow over my head.

“Ok, I will kiss you then you need to wake up.”

Oh, they were good and they knew this story was ending with us going to the park one way or another.

The kids have different favorite activities at the park. Tru prefers to zip around on his Strider, showing off his moves on the slopes. When I asked for a photo, he insisted on taking one beside his precious bike.

In a couple of years, he’ll be doing stunts on his BMX (do people still ride BMX bikes these days?). How did my baby get so big so fast?

Kirsten has 2 favorite activities. The first is making daddy swipe the sand from between her toes. Every few steps, she stops and yells “Daddy there’s sand in my toes. You need to clean for me.”

She knows to ask for daddy because I’m all “it’s fine, just keep walking, we’ll clean it when we’re done ok.” While daddy is all “ok sit down, daddy will help you.”

Her other favorite thing? The swings. Which daddy has to push, obviously.

Or sometimes we get Tru to do it because it’s one of those things big brothers have to learn how to do. Once he pushed her right off the swing and she got really mad but he’s getting really good now.

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Kidspeak, stuff best described as not safe for parents

Open Sesame

February 9, 2012

At 2 years and 6 months, Kirsten was still unable to open the door by herself. Considering that her brother has been opening his own doors since he was 20 months old, she’s like way behind the in this particular physical development area.

being short is no fun at all

This wouldn’t be so bad if not for her penchant for locking herself in rooms. She does it both at home and in other people’s houses. One time, we had to smash the lock with a hammer to get her out, which was a harrowing experience for everyone involved.

Recently, she did it again and this time, it had to be my bedroom, which happens to be the only room in the house without an access key (we had the doors replaced for the other 2 rooms). Naturally, I was reluctant to go through the whole door smashing debacle again, so we tried to talk her into opening the door on her own.

Me: Baby, open the door!

Kirsten: I’m too short, I cannot reach.

Me: Yes you can. That’s how you locked it in the first place. Now I need you to try your best to unlock it yourself.

Kirsten: I tried, I cannot open it.

Me: Go grab the mattress and stand on it, you’ll be able to reach.

Kirsten: The mattress is too heavy, I can’t…push…it…ARRGGHHH *grunting sounds while attempting to push the mattress*

Me: Ok, stand on your tippie toes and try, you can do it.

Kirsten: I’m too tired, I’m going to sleep.

Me: NO WAKE UP! Don’t sleep, you need to open the door first.

Kirsten: *silence*

Me: Sweetie, listen to me. You need to get off the bed and come to the door to try again. Mommy’s right outside, we can do it together.

Kirsten: *silence*

Me: Hey are you there? If you come out by yourself, I’ll give you ice-cream.

Kirsten: I get ice-cream? Ok.

Me: Yes, you’ll get a whole bowl of ice-cream. Promise.

Kirsten: I think I need to find a card to open.

Me: No, you don’t need a card. Just tiptoe and open the door. Come on!

Kirsten: *scraping sounds at the door*

Me: What are you doing? You can’t scrape your way out, you’re not a ferret. Just reach up and turn the knob with your fingers.

Kirsten: Mommy you do it, I cannot open.

Husband: Ok, this is futile. I’m getting the hammer.

Me: No wait, give her a chance. She’s tall enough, she can do it.

Me: Kirsten, mommy’s here. Just turn the knob, I’ll count to 3 and we do it together. 1, 2, 3! TURN NOW!!

Just like that, she did it. She opened the door and walked out looking mighty pleased with herself.

Kirsten: I opened the door by myself, you know. Now I get ice-cream.

Me: Why, yes you can. But after that, we’re practicing opening the door 20 times so this doesn’t happen again.

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blogging about blogging

Viral Bacterial

February 8, 2012

So good news and bad news.

The bad news is that the blog has contracted some terrible illness and has been directing you guys to a dubious Russian site the past day and a half. There’s apparently a virus/worm/hack thing going on and because I don’t speak geek and is therefore no match for a nerdy teenager with douchey headphones and week-old pizza, my only conceivable response involves some hand-wringing and shrieking for help.

Fortunately the husband knows a little geek-talk, so he’s been working with our web hosting people to sort out the issue. The good news is that it finally seems to be back up again for now. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it stays that way because the truth is, we’re no match for them hackers. If they’re like Obi-Wan Kenobi with advanced Jedi mind powers, the husband is like a young Padawan who can only levitate small objects. While I can only do the standing around and shrieking like Natalie Portman.

And it’s not for a lack of trying either. I spent the better part of yesterday googling key phrases like “help my blog is hacked” and “how to get rid of malicious files in your website” but none of the results proved very useful.

I mean, it’s not like computer code is the easiest thing in the world to decipher. It’s just a bunch of random alphabets that don’t make any sense. We were doing a live chat with the web hosting company and I could barely make out half of what they were saying.

There were all these words like wtlsl, html and php flying around. Ok, first of all, WHERE ARE YOUR VOWELS? And how on earth am I supposed to understand what these words mean?

You know what? Pfffffffpt right back at you.

So anyway, most of the malicious files have been removed but because the site has just recovered from a major surgery, there’s probably still going to be a few kinks to work out over the next few days. Thanks for your patience, we’ll get things back to the way they were soon enough. If you still have difficulties accessing the site, go do some online shopping and come back tomorrow.

PS. If by any chance, you’re the one trying to hack the site, please don’t. I’ll buy you some fresh pizza and make non-vowel grunting sounds back at you if it makes you feel better.

PPS. The virus seems to have jumped onto the husband because his Jedi powers aren’t strong enough. He’s now down with a different but equally terrible illness that has him hacking (*ahem pun intended*) his lungs out at home. So it seems to have gone viral.

PPPS. I’m also throwing in a cute photo of the kids to cheer everyone up a little.

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Kidspeak

Baby talk

February 6, 2012

The kids have been taking rather well to the news of the new baby. They seem to be happy that there’s another one of them coming in a few months and I think they like the idea of outnumbering the adults. But then they obviously don’t know that if things come down to a vote, mommy’s like California – I’ve got 55 electoral votes. The husband gets 29 votes and the kids get 3 each.

That’s just how we roll.

Which is probably also why nobody likes to vote around here. They just sigh and shuffle along reluctantly.

But back to the baby. To prepare them for the baby’s arrival, I’ve been talking to them extensively about what to expect when the baby comes.

 

Carry Favour

Kirsten: Mommy, carry me!

Me: Sweetie, mommy can’t carry you now because mommy’s carrying baby right?

Kirsten: You carry baby with your stomach, you can carry Kirsten with your hands.

Me: Well, ok good point. But mommy will get really tired if I carry 2 babies for too long.

Tru: No, we need to take turns. You carry baby for 5 minutes, then you carry Kirsten for 5 minutes, then you carry Truett for 5 minutes.

Me: I can’t put the baby down until I give birth but I’ll carry each of you for 5 minutes and that’s all.

 

Oh, Poop!

Me: Who’s going to help me clean up when the baby poops?

Both: EWWW SO GROSS!

Kirsten: I cannot help, you know. I’m too small.

Tru: I will run away, if not the poo poo will drop on my leg.

Me: Oei, then nobody wants to help me?

Tru: Ask Daddy, he’s very good at cleaning poo poo.

Me: That’s very true.

 

Crying Baby

Me: Kids, what must you do if baby cries next time?

Kirsten: I will kiss the baby and say “Don’t cry..”

Tru: I will tell mommy to go carry the baby.

 

Sharing and Caring 

Me: Will you guys give the baby your blankie and duck duck?

Tru: How about we buy a new blankie for the baby, then we each have one.

Kirsten: Ok, we need to go kai kai to buy a new one now. Quick, wear shoes!

Me: Hey! How did this turn into an emergency shopping trip? We don’t need to buy it right now, we’ve still got time.

Kirsten: Then we can go playground, YAYY! We wear shoes already.

Me: I just got conned into bringing you guys to the playground. Very nicely played.

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the breast things in life are free

Sick ‘N Slide

February 2, 2012

The kids have been nursing a viral infection the past couple of days and having them at home all day has been keeping me very busy indeed.

To be fair, they’ve been really good considering that they’re both ill and have every right to be cranky, but you know how when they’re at home, you need to be engaged every minute of the day.

“Mommy play with me!” “Mommy, I’m the doctor, I need to operate on your leg.” “Mommy I want I want I want…”

Days like these, I really appreciate the 3 hours they spend in school harassing other children instead of me. You want to fake slice up somebody’s leg, go find a friend. Take turns to be the cadaver or something.

Anyway, they were feeling much better yesterday afternoon, so we all went downstairs for some much-needed fresh air. It’s incredible how they can be all listless and sluggish at home all day but once they hit the playground, they’re miraculously healed and suddenly spritely.

They even had the energy to do a bit of pole dancing at the fitness centre. Speaking of energy, this Kirsten some serious upper body strength. She can hang on the monkey bars much longer than Tru can, which is a surprise because Tru’s the muscular one and she’s somewhat softer around the edges.

They also discovered a new way of going down the slides.

They did this at least 20 times, giggling and shrieking every single time. Happy times.

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