picture perfect

2 things about horses. They’re awesome but they smell the opposite of awesome. You look at them from afar and they’re so beautiful, with their swishing ponytails and tight curves but you get up close and the smell of horses can make you pass out. Probably why we don’t see a lot of them here.

Yesterday we brought the kids to this stable at Pasir Ris Park to meet some horses. Actually we were looking for the playground but we got lost and found something even better.

Kirsten was all like “GOGGIES! I like goggies!” I think she was referring to doggies, which was um, a good try. Now did you know that horses love to do this sneezing thing that sounds like a cross between nose-blowing and a hiccough. While the kids were admiring the lovely horses, one of them went “HRRRRUMPHHH” and it was followed by a 2-second freeze in time in slow motion before both of them started screaming bloody murder at the horses.

To their credit, the horses were unfazed by the 2 screaming babies and one of them cocked her head to the side like “dude, I don’t yell at you when you sneeze alright.” And that’s why I love horses, they’re so cool all the time.

There were pony rides at $10 a round but they were too upset to risk being sneezed at while being on the horse with nowhere to run so they just stood around and looked at the horses from a distance where it was *safe*.

Although, it seemed like the other kids had a lot of fun actually riding the ponies. They were all clamoring for this white one and the poor brown horses just looked a little neglected.

Then all of a sudden Tru got all excited, shouting “LOOK mommy, there’s a cow” and when I turned to look, there was this. Nice one, kiddo. I tried telling him that horses can have cow spots but he insisted it was a cow so we settled on calling it a corse. I rock science lessons, y’all.

I always love it when our original plans get messed up and we stumble upon something way more fun, like a quaint little stable tucked away in a park 5 minutes from home. I have a feeling we’ll be coming by here a lot in the next couple of weeks just to get away from the crowds and the malls.

You know those wonderful Kodak moments that you have in life when you see something beautiful or experience something that’s out of this world and it always seems a little empty when you go through them alone?

As a kid, siblings are the perfect cure for that. Everything is so new to them and they’re always amazed by the stuff they see like fish swimming in the sea or airplanes flying past in the sky. Then they turn to each other and go “LOOK! AN AIRPLANE WOWWWWW!!!” and have someone share that excitement. After a while, they realize parents are all like “um, ok, yay I guess.”

Or when you’re cranky and there’s someone to pat you on the shoulder and say it’s ok.

Or just to hug it out once in a while because you can never have too many hugs.

On the one hand, there’s the incessant bickering and toy snatching and shrieking. On the other hand, there’s this, which makes all that seem almost bearable. It’s my momnesia talking but I’m going with the hand with the hugs and you know what this means… I need more babies!!

PS. On a separate note, the winners for the deuter giveaway are announced. Congrats to Kless and Yen, let me know your addresses via email and the deuter bags will be coming your way.

Two days ago, I came down with an excruciating headache which may or may not be related to my wisdom teeth extraction. I’m having it checked out later today; let’s hope it’s not an aneurysm.

So I popped some happy pills (relax, they’re just painkillers, not diazepam) and we decided to bring the kids to the park for a tea party. We laid out the mats and put out the tea sets but then they didn’t really like tea so it was more like a fruit salad party instead. It was the perfect way to spend a potentially awful weekend.

In addition to the bunch of plastic fruits, I also brought along some cheese and snacks for them to munch on if they got hungry looking at all the fake food.

After they were done feeding themselves the real food, they pretended to feed each other imaginary treats like chocolate and chips. At first, Tru looked at the empty spoon with some hesitation before deciding to indulge his sister in the game of pretending to eat treats while actually eating dirt from a spoon. To be fair, she mostly jabbed his chin with the spoon so there was minimal dirt eating.

Diligently mixing another concoction of dirt for her brother.

Now I’m bragging here but Truett has grown to be an awesome big brother. He goes along with her bizarre games even when he’s not really into them. He gives in to her more times than I expect him to. He hugs her and pats her on the head as a sign of affection and when she pushes him away, he takes it all in his stride and says “it’s ok, mei mei don’t want hug.”

Some days, I look at them and I can’t help but feel like they turned out alright.

After Tru got bored with the tea party, he decided to look at the ships out in the ocean. My little sailor boy is already dreaming of sailing off into the sunset to search for new adventures and I know that because he got all excited like “Truett wants to sit on the BIGGGG ship.”

Updated: Apparently, the headaches are not wisdom teeth related. Also, it doesn’t look like I’ve got an aneurysm. Doctor says it’s tension headaches caused by stress, sleep deprivation, uncomfortable positions and irregular eating so he was all like “have you had any of the above lately?” And I actually laughed out loud because I can no longer remember a time without any of the above so I said “I have 2 toddlers, that’a practically my life.”

Long story short, I need to relax. Or take more painkillers. Probably the second one.