coolest kids ever

Truett and Kirsten have been practising really hard for this huge dance recital that’s happening on Friday. Too excited. It’s a parent’s prerogative to brag about their kids’ littlest achievements (guilty as charged!) but this is not one of those times, this is one of the big ones. I feel like such a proud momma watching them drop the beat to American Authors. How did these kids get to be so effortlessly cool? They certainly didn’t get it from me. Or the husband. We’re like two of the dorkiest people when it comes to dancing. Back when we were dating (and it was still cool to be seen looking all nonchalant at clubs), we tried it once, you know, hanging out late at a club pretending like we know what we’re doing on the dance floor. It wasn’t pretty, I’ll tell you that much.

Dance has been so good for them, though – they’re making friends, building confidence, learning to express themselves. And they’ve been working so hard too. Extra practice sessions in class the past couple of weeks, and then going through the routines at home in front of the tv. Sometimes, I see them subconsciously rehearsing the steps while walking around the house in the afternoon and it just makes me smile.

I have every intention to be that embarrassing groupie mom in the fourth row on Friday, I’m getting my cheer on and everything. ;)

As a by product, I’ve been spending some alone time with Finn, which is a proper treat all on its own. Last week, he gallantly offered to hang out with me in town while Tru and Kirsten were at dance class. Such a gentleman, this boy.

We held hands and walked down Orchard Road looking at the malls all suited up for christmas. It’s so much more fun soaking up the christmas cheer with an enthusiastic 2-year-old. “WHAT’S THIS???” he asked, pointing at everything. “That’s a nutcracker, that’s a gingerbread house, that’s a christmas tree, that’s um, a pebble…”

“A PEBBLE, YES!! AWESOME!!!”

We shared a bubble tea and he steered me in the direction of a playground – a fair compromise if there ever was one.

As an extra special treat, we spent a little time queueing up for soft serve at Honey Creme. We were walking past the store and he just stopped and stared at the picture of ice-cream like it was the most delicious thing in the world. “Ice cream, momma?” he asked.

Sigh, he sure knows how to make it hard for a girl to say no.

Look at that face! He was thrilled to his toes, holding his precious cup of ice cream with both hands. The soft serve was ok, not particularly queue-worthy but Finn loved it so I don’t know, we might just be back for more.

Overheard:

Truett: Kirsten, do you know actually I’m a bit worried about starting Primary 1? I’ll have to learn so many new things and they’ll be very difficult.

Kirsten: Well…I’d be happy to assist you! If you’re nice to me…

Smartass reply by the daughter aside, it’s really sweet to know that the kids are starting to share their feelings with each other.

We asked Truett how he felt about starting Primary 1 but he was a little reluctant to talk to us about it so we didn’t press the issue. We figured we’d wait till he was ready. For now, we’re just glad that they have each other for support.

Several days later, Truett was grabbing his head looking visibly stressed while learning his 听写…

Truett: Wah, this is super hard man. Do I need to learn all this for Primary 1?

Me: Um, actually, you need to learn this for next week. You can do it, Tru, we’ll learn them one at a time.

Kirsten: Okayyy, kor kor, I will learn all the words with you. If we do it together, it won’t be so bad.

And she did. And they both nailed it.

It’s been raining a little more than usual lately and I love rain. Specifically, I love to be snuggled up nice and cosy in my blankie whenever it rains because the only way to enjoy rain is not be caught in it.

My kids love rain too, except they have very different ideas about what to do about it. Every time it rains, they come running to me all dressed up in their rain gear, holding their tiny brollies (which by the way, is so irresistibly cute) and they flash their puppy dog eyes asking if they can go play in the rain. I suppose if I had rain gear as cute as theirs, I’d want to be out in the rain all the time too…hang on, no wait, I think I still prefer the snuggly in bed part.

Sometimes, I can resist one pair of baby puppy dog eyes. On a good day, I can even resist two. But three pairs?!! These guys are killing my uterus.

So we put on our goofy rain faces and went out for some puddle stomping.

Finn hasn’t got his own rain gear yet so Kirsten was all “it’s ok, Finn Finn can have my raincoat, I’ve got my pretty pink brolly.” This girl is born to be a big sister.

We walked and walked till the rain stopped and you’d think that it would have been as clear a sign as any that it was time to go home but these kids can continue a rain party without any more rain.

No more water falling from the sky? Look, there’s water on the floor, let’s poke at it with our fingers. Borderline gross but fine, poke away, knock yourselves out. And then baby Finn decided maybe he could attempt to swim in a particularly large puddle.

There’s a line of grossness that one doesn’t cross and that’s mine. This baby is going to need a hazmat suit the next time we go puddle stomping.

So I was having a bit of a crummy day – you know, one of those days you wished would go faster so you could skip right to the end and not have to see it ever again.

But see, one of the benefits of working from home is being able to take 15 minutes to hang out with my baby. On a normal day, looking at this dude would have cheered my up considerably but it wasn’t a normal day. Turns out that it was one of those deliriously happy days for my baby and I got to see this.

That made me deliriously happy too and my crummy day got a whole lot less crummy all of a sudden.

The end.

During a pre-bedtime snuggle slash wacky dance slash crazy playing session with the kids last week, Kirsten abruptly stopped dancing and came to whisper something in my ear.

Kirsten: *whispers* Hey mom, do you know what’s my secret wish?

Me: *whispers back* No…what?

Kirsten: I wish that we will always be best friends forever, me and kor kor and Finn Finn. Even when we’re big like adults.

Me: Best wish ever. Can I make that my wish too?

Kirsten: I think if we both wish together, it will come true.

My heart, it melted.

We were over at my in-laws’ place during chinese new year and there’s this piano in the living room so my 2 boys spontaneously decided they were going to pair up for a duet.

I’m not going to wax lyrical about their musical ability because it is clear that they have none to speak of. I suppose this sort of talent can develop later in life for some but looking at the gene pool they inherited theirs from, let’s just say that we don’t have high hopes of that happening.

No matter though, because the next best thing to doing something really well is to at least look cool attempting it.

Which if you ask me, nailed it!

PS. All you need to do is cover your ears and imagine Billy Joel in the background.

My mom just left for an 8-day church mission trip to the Philippines and right before she left, she asked we had any toys to share with some of the children who lost their homes in typhoon haiyan.

At first, I thought of just picking out a few of the kids’ toys for my mom to bring along but we figured this would be a really great opportunity to get the kids involved so we gathered them and told the them about the typhoon, then asked if they had any toys they wanted to share.

Kirsten immediately went to her treasure box and took out her precious princess tiara. A word on this tiara: It’s the one we got her from Disney World’s Bippity Boppity Boo boutique – it glitters, it lights up and it makes her feel like the most beautiful princess in the world. She wears it everywhere and it even sleeps next to her on the bed.

I asked her if she was sure she wanted to give away her most treasured possession and she nodded, before looking at it for the last time and handing it over to grandma.

She said “I think someone will like this very much.”

This girl has such a big heart, it makes mine burst with gooey mushy mommy pride.