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Daphne

Theo

Happy birthday, Theo!

July 27, 2016

Birthday season continues with Theo turning 2 last Saturday.

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Since it falls nicely on the mid point between all the other kids’ birthdays, we had a little combined party for all the kids and also to celebrate baby Hayley’s first month (economies of scale!!). When there are 5 kids, ain’t nobody got time to attend 5 different parties, and more importantly, ain’t nobody got time to plan 5 different parties.

The important thing is that Baby Theo was able to partake of much cake + other delicious snacks during this party, and therefore it was a very, very good day.

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2-year-old Theo is ridiculously adorable. He likes to wear hats and decorate his cheeks with stickers while engaging in various activities.

Such as thinking.

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And drawing.

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Headgear + stickers, that’s all it takes to make him smile.

Sometimes, he likes to balance things on his head, looking like it’s nbd.

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He’s like a real life toy I never knew I needed all my life.

This boy is such a delight to have. For starters, he talks way too much for a baby who just turned 2 – he tells me about sunshine and strawberries and snails – and right now, his favourite words are “I WANT BREAD/CAKE/CHICKEN/GRAPES!!”, followed by  “MOMMY LOOK AT ME, ARE YOU LISTENING???” while squishing my face with both hands.

2-years-old and already a foodie. All my other kids are just ok with food, they’ll eat because they need to, whether it’s a michelin-starred mee pok that we queued an hour for or some nonsense food court ban mian. But Theo, he’ll point to the specific morsel of deliciousness and tell me exactly what he wants to have in his mouth. “I want this part, and this part, and this part…”

And the true mark of a foodie is in the way they enjoy their food. Just look at this baby attack his sandwich. When it comes to food, baby Theo knows what’s what.

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He knows how to make a girl feel real special too.

One time, he held my hand and told me “I like mommy to be happy.” I said, “I am. Mommy’s so happy because you make me happy” and he lit up with the biggest smile.

Since then, he’ll walk up to me with an exaggerated grin and announce “I’m happy, momma! You make me happy!!”

Full on heart eyes emoji, this one.

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*bonus material* here’s baby Theo talking about his favourite topic. :)

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Advertorial

POSB Passion Run for Kids 2016

July 20, 2016

Before we had so many kids, the husband and I used to spend a lot of time on outdoorsy fitness type activities. We’d go blading at East Coast, play basketball at the court near my house, cycle at Pasir Ris, run a bit.

You guys want a bit of dating trivia?

One of the first dates I ever had with the husband was out on a run around NTU. It wasn’t even officially a date kind of date – we were just friends back then, and I knew him to be an exercise buff so I asked him out for a run one evening on campus. (*The husband now insists I was the one who made the first move on him but that’s nonsense.) In any case, I might have overestimated my fitness level because 5 minutes into the run, I thought I was going to pass out from shortness of breath, but it would have been too embarrassing to give up and turn back so I spent the next 25 minutes pretending I wasn’t actually dying from the run. I was unusually quiet though because I couldn’t afford waste oxygen on frivolous things like talking.

Seeing that it’s how our love blossomed (ugh!), we knew it’d be fun to spend time on family fitness activities with the kids.

Except that all the baby making these few years have been more exhausting than we expected so we haven’t been spending as much time exercising with the kids. They do hang out outdoors running/cycling/scooting for 1-2 hours each day while I bring the babies for a walk.

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We’ve also done a few family runs over the years, starting as early as 2012 when Kirsten was still a squishy little toddler. Look at those cheeks!! I miss those cheeks so much.

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Just a few months ago, the husband did a 5km run with Truett and Kirsten, the longest one the kids have ever attempted. Truett loved it. He ran and ran and ran and when he was tired from all that running, his mental strength kicked in and he was able to dig deep to find that extra something to finish the race.

Kirsten, who clearly got her non-running genes from me, was super excited for like the first 50 metres. Thereafter, she spent the rest of the race looking most miserable and making statements like “I can’t believe we’re not even halfway there!!“, “I can’t feel my legs…“, “I’m dying of thirst here” and “I’m never doing this again!” The husband says it was exactly like as if he was running with me.

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In about two months, on 4 September 2016, we’ll be doing our next family run – the POSB Passion Run for Kids 2016 at the Marina Promontory. We’re really looking forward to it. Even Kirsten has agreed to participate, hearing that it’s only 800m. “Only 800m?? SO EASY!!” she said.

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The big kids have already started practicing for the run. Truett is training the other two, making them do warm ups and practice runs around our estate.

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Besides the actual race, there will be plenty of free activities that the kids are super excited about! Here are some that we are really looking forward to:

  • First ever Kids Yoga by the Bay

Kids doing yoga is so cute. I told them they will be able to practise yoga against the backdrop of Marina Bay and Truett was all “What’s yoga?” To which Kirsten said, “I know! You need to stand on one leg like this” and proceeded to demonstrate exactly how one does yoga. I don’t even know how she knows this.

  • Ready, Steady, Go! Kids Obstacle Course

This is the one they’re most excited about. They tried a treetop obstacle couuse when we were in Melbourne last year and it’s still one of the funnest activities they’ve done.

  • Large-sized family carnival with performances and contests for some family bonding time.

One word: CARNIVAL!!!

  • Photo taking with Smiley the mascot.

Finn and Theo are at the adorable mascot fascination phase, so they’ll be happy to hug a friendly giant squirrel.

  • Family panel hosted by Diana Ser.

This will be a great opportunity for parents to exchange health & wellness tips.

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Besides being able to spend quality family time exercising together, participants will also get a race pack worth over $100.

In addition, all proceeds from the run will go towards the POSB Passion Kids Fund, which will be used to support children in the community through different programmes in Singapore. This is a good opportunity to share with the kids about how we can do our part for the less privileged and get them involved in giving back to the community whenever we can.

This will be a great activity to bond with your kids while keeping fit together this September school holidays – run for a good cause, run for kids!

**Quick, go sign up for the run by 31 July here!

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Kirsten

Happy birthday, baby girl!!

July 18, 2016

Kirsten turned 7 last week. :)

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When I had this baby 7 years ago, I didn’t realise how much better my life would be with her in it. I suppose all parents are obliged to think that their kids are pretty rad, but in this case, I happen to have one of those kids whose radness, is in fact, out of this world.

Have I already mentioned that I really really really like this girl?

So Truett and Finn love surprises for their birthdays and we’ll usually surprise them with secret presents that we’ve picked out and wrapped. Kirsten, like me, prefers to know exactly what she’s getting and also have a say in picking it out, so this year, I asked her what she’d like to have.

“Actually you don’t have to get me anything because I’ve already got the best present…baby Hayley!!”

And she meant it too (even though we also got her an extra present in the form of a sparkly pen set).

She’s been so thrilled by the arrival of baby Hayley that not a day goes by without her fussing over her baby all day. I often forget that she’s 7 because she handles the baby like a pro – far better than most adults do. You know how when you get your kids to handle small babies, it’s mostly perfunctory and they’re not really helping because you have to supervise both kids to make sure none of them gets hurt. Kirsten so good at it that I can count on her to watch the baby when I have to attend to any of the other kids urgently. She’ll cradle Hayley with one arm and shush her gently while patting her head and walking around. Pro level = very impressive.

All day, she’ll be all “Can I carry her, please please please pleeeease???” and I’ll be like “WHY YES! Here, take the baby!!”

One of the best scenes in the final season of The Good Wife was when Eli Gold turned to his daughter, Marissa (who had done something quite spectacular), and said, “Now I get why people have children. So that they can admire themselves in someone else.”

This is how I feel with Kirsten sometimes. One of the unexpected joys of parenthood is when you see the best parts of yourself in another human being, and you know that they’re going to be even more awesome when they grow up.

Speaking of, we were talking about babies one time and Kirsten told me that she was planning to have 10 kids when she grows up.

“10??!! You know that’s insane right?” I told her.

“I know. But I can do it and I’ll have so many babies to snuggle all day.”

She’s right though. If anyone can pull off having 10 babies, it’s probably gonna be her. And no pressure here, but if that happens, I’ll be the happiest grandma on the block. The husband says it’s not normal for people to dream of being a grandparent when they’ve just had a newborn and I told him that we’re here having our 5th kid – we’ve been done with normal 3 kids ago. Besides, the next best thing to having your own baby is having your babies have more babies when they grow up.

In the meantime, I’m just really glad to have this girl as my baby.

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