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Daphne

Kidspeak

Who’s the fiercest of them all?

Husband: Guys, who’s more fierce, daddy or mommy?

Both kids: DADDY!

Kirsten: Mommy is not fierce at all but daddy is one thousand million super duper giant fierce.

Tru: Ya, daddy is VERY VERY VERY VERY FIERCE.

Me: Hey! Mommy can be very very very fierce too, you know.

Both kids: *looks at each other, then…* Hahahahahahahahahha

***

Tru: I wish I can be an adult because adults don’t do any wrong things.

Me: Um, wow, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Tru: When children do wrong things, adults can make us go to the naughty corner but when adults do wrong things, who will make them go naughty corner?

Me: That’s true but you know what? I actually wish I could just go to the naughty corner every time I make a mistake. When adults make mistakes, it’s usually far worse.

Tru: Other adults will scold you?

Me: Well, yeah, sometimes. And some of them can be really mean. Or it can be way worse than scoldings. Like sometimes when adults make mistakes at work, they get fired from their jobs. Or if they commit a traffic offence, the traffic police will give them a ticket. Or if they do drugs, they can get very sick. Or if they do really bad stuff like killing other people, they get sent to prison for a long, long time. Any number of bad things can happen when adults make mistakes. But kids just get to face the wall when they make a mistake, that’s not so bad right?

Tru: *looks appalled*

Me: When mommy was your age, I got disciplined by Grandpa and Grandma a lot so I learnt not to make most of those mistakes as an adult.

Tru: *silence*

Me: I know it sounds crazy but we do it because we love you and we want you to be better. So you won’t have to learn these lessons when you get to my age. It’s far more painful to learn it then.

Tru: *silence*

Me: Hey son, you know we always love you SUPER SUPER DUPER HUGE GIANT MUCH no matter what happens, don’t you.

Tru: Yes yes I know I know…

***

I didn’t tell him then but of all the mistakes I could ever make, I’m most terrified of doing it wrong as a parent. Those lessons, I didn’t get to learn as a kid so we’re mostly winging it as we go along. And there’s no real way to know if you’re doing it right until it’s too late.

Sometimes, I think that perhaps we should maintain some illusion of perfection as parents until they’re old enough to know otherwise but then I also think that a far more important lesson is for them to know that parents make mistakes too – we just try our best to learn from them and do better next time.

I hope we don’t mess things up with these incredible kids.

Most of all, I hope they know that we really do love them unconditionally.

kids in motion

It’s Monday and I require the highest of fives

Hey there, Monday! This past (long-ish) weekend was the perfect combination of spontaneous outdoorsyness and homebound downtime, which was exactly what we needed. It was so good that the residual aura of the chill pill we took spilled over to this here Monday, making for a less bluey start to the week.

Especially since my calendar tells me that this week is going to be a hectic one. Weekends are sometimes a nice end to the week but other times, I like to start my week with a relaxing weekend so Monday is like the third day in and I feel like I’m hitting the ground running, if this makes any sense at all.

Here are some of the interesting bits (this is debatable):

1. It was Children’s Day on Friday and the kids had a special party to attend in church, just the two of them with thousands of other kids. These parties are seriously rad and they get to take a big bus all the way to Jurong West all on their own (with teachers on board). They were real excited about it all week and on Friday morning, I woke up to see them sitting on the couch discussing strategy.

“Later we’ll bring some snacks and milo, we sit together ok? Then we can share.”

“And gummies! Don’t forget gummies!”

“Oh yes, gummies! I’m so so so excited, are you excited?”

Moments like these, I think that having them back to back was the single best decision we made as parents.

Truett & Kirsten

2. Baby Finn usually wakes up at 6.30 in the morning but for 3 days straight, he’s been waking up past 8 and in a fabulous mood. He sits up, peers at us through his floppy hair and flashes a killer grin before doing his morning tumbles on our big bed.

3. We decided to check out GRUB for the first time. It’s been on our list of places to check out for a while but we never quite got around to it because Bishan Park is one of those places that’s well, not entirely compelling for an easterner. A few times, we thought of dropping by but having to drive out for half an hour with the entire crew doesn’t quite constitute dropping by. But we were itching for somewhere new to try over the weekend so drop by we did.

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3.5 The beef & guinness pie is good, the churros are excellent and the fish burger is pretty cool. But you’ll want to skip the breakfast set and the portobello. And go early if you want to explore the park a little. By the time we finished eating, the only place left to explore in the sweltering heat was the shaded carpark.

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4. It’s apparent that Finn is happiest whenever his favourite tiny humans are around. All 3 of them spent a good part of their Sunday morning stomping around the house single file style, laughing and falling over one another in a giggly heap.

5. We’re having a bit of a Breaking Bad withdrawal. It’s been such a huge part of our Mondays the past couple of months and last night, the husband was all “Mondays aren’t going to be the same again now that it’s over.” The only consolation is that the end has been fitting. And so satisfying. Today, we’ll be commemorating one of the best TV shows in the history of ever with pizza and Ben & Jerry’s.

Also, if anyone knows where we can get Stevia here, hook me up.