picture perfect

There was a time when I was so into black and white photography. There’s something so bittersweet and romantic about it, which suited my angsty teenage self just fine. It had nothing to do with how I felt so badass shooting in black and white with a film camera or the fact that my terrible pictures could pass off as artistic without color. Nothing like that at all.

Then I met color which was all happy and vibrant and made everything pop, which was great for taking photos of the kids and I’ve been shooting in color ever since.

But this batch of photos I took seemed just perfect for black and white, so I did a bit of Lightroom-ing and I think I’m in love with black and white all over again.

I was messing around with the camera as usual when Tru started insisting that he wanted to take photos as well. Of course I told him he was too young and he didn’t know how and the camera was only for adults. Then he had to go and ask me nicely like “Mommy can I have the camera please, please? Truett take pictures!” So to prove my point, I put him on the bed and strapped him up and said “See, Truett doesn’t know how” and to prove his point, he located the shutter button, brought the DSLR up to he eyes and started snapping.

Ok so the pictures looked real artistic, with a horrendous close up of my arm and half an eye but he was all like “SEE TRUETT TAKE PICTURES OF MOMMY!” I should have known better than to tell him he didn’t know how to do something. He is my boy after all.

Oh and in case you’re wondering, I took the photos of him taking photos of me with my iPhone 4.

We finally had a chance to check out Universal Studios yesterday on an outing that was totally unplanned. What started out as a visit to Resorts World Sentosa for a leisurely afternoon stroll turned out to be some intense non-stop action at the spanking new theme park.

Typically, an outing like this would be planned way in advance and we’d be waiting at the gate 30 minutes prior to opening time (I take my theme parks very seriously) but what with picking Tru up from school and grabbing lunch yesterday, half the day was already gone by the time we got to RWS.

Tru stood staring open-mouthed at the legendary Universal globe with mist swirling round and he was like “what is this place? I’m never leaving here again” and that was only the entrance of Universal Studios. And obviously, the husband is powerless when Tru turns on the googly-eyes charm so he was all like “what the heck, let’s just get the tickets and GO” even though it was already 2.30 in the afternoon and we had less than 5 hours before closing.

Stepping into Universal Studios was like being back in LA again. Main Street, the palm trees, street signs, music, benches, memorabilia shops that make you feel like it’s ok to shell out $20 for a Shrek-shaped pillow…it was all too good. Honestly, I didn’t expect a lot because I figured we’d just have a miniature version of the one in LA (hello, space constraints) but I have to say, I was impressed.

Not Disneyland by any means, but definitely respectable.

Of course, Tru’s first experience with a mascot had to be Frankenstein. He recognized it from Veggie Tales and started calling it the Boogey Man. Then as if dissatisfied with the description, he proceeded to call it Cookie Monster because ok, this monster does look like he OD-ed on cookies, y’all (I’ll have to do something about his Sesame Street education). His look of horror just says it all.

It was just nice that Kirsten has started to walk all by her lonesome so she was off and running the moment we got there. She made her way up to the little stage area and started rocking to Elvis. She’s got groove, this little one.

The awesome thing about theme parks is that everything looks so picture perfect. Like this one. It’s got to be one of my favorite pictures of Truett, looking all big boy and independent. “Wassup momma, I’m just chilling with my hand draped casually on the bench and my air of nonchalance.”

And a couple more.

I’m a sucker for castles, especially theme park castles with the pretty pink pokey things with flags on top. Real castles, not so much, they’re kind of creepy.

The best part about the trip to Universal was the complete lack of crowds. We expected it to be relatively packed but for the most part, we felt like we had the entire theme park to ourselves. Most of the rides had no queues at all and the kids got to ride on the carousels and flying birds as many times as they wanted. Tru was on the Madagascar carousel 5 times in a row, which was like being able to eat all the candy in the world. Without getting fat.

All in all, a perfect day. Although it would have been better if it wasn’t so blistering hot. The whole time, Kirsten’s hair was plastered to her head from sweat and Tru kept wanting to remove all his clothes. I just hope this doesn’t mean my son is going to be a nudist.

There’s a swing set just next to the void deck of my house, the old-fashioned sort with a wooden plank and metal chains. Tru has been walking past it for over a year without knowing what it was so he never bugged us to let him have a go at the swings. Then recently, he saw some kids having the time of their lives on the swing and he was like the guy who discovered fire while playing with some rocks in a total “OMG THAT’S WHAT IT’S FOR?!!” kind of way.

Understandably, we’ve been spending a bit of time there since.

The first time he tried, I could see his irrational-fear mechanism kicking in. He gripped the chains till his knuckles turned white and he was trying real hard not to chicken out like a little baby. He was all “Think of the other kids they had so much fun but I’m going to fall off and die alright, BREATHE just breathe and hold tight, I’m not going to be a baby I CAN DO THIS COME ON!!”

I was ready to carry him off and tell him it was ok, we could try it when he was a little older but he finally decided to man up and bite the bullet. So I watched on like a proud momma as he took his first ride on the swing.

Ok I’ll admit that I was actually more worried than he was because I once saw my friend fly off the swing as his hand slipped while trying to perform a stunt of the kids-don’t-try-this-at-home variety. He had a scab the size of Africa for a couple of weeks and I had to block out the image from my head for a lot longer than that. Granted, his little stunt did achieve legendary status on the playground back then but I’m pretty sure his mom wasn’t pleased about it at all.

We gave him a little push and off he went. A minute in, he stopped being afraid and started having fun. Which was right about the time he started giggling and yelling for us to push him harder so he could fly higher.

In between giggles and victory whoops, he looked at me like “look mom, I DID IT I’m a big boy now” and I cheered like he just won the Gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games. Every time I see him conquer a fear, I feel like he’s grown up a little bit more and I know I’m supposed to be happy for him and all but sometimes I feel like my baby is slipping away and I secretly wish he’ll stay my baby forever. Also, I’m just not prepared to have him come home with a large bruise and a broken arm after attempting a death-defying stunt at the playground.

My idea of a perfect weekend used to involve sleeping in late, watching movies in bed all day, reading a nice novel and pretty much being a giant slug. When the kids came along, it seemed like such a waste to sloth the weekend away, especially since having the kids around made it impossible to sloth by default. So it made more sense to bring them out and hopefully tire them out with strenuous activities.

Lately, we’ve been joining the rest of Singapore (it seems) at East Coast every Saturday in a bid to get in some exercise and breathe in the salty sea breeze.

In other news, baby girl is becoming increasingly mobile, taking 5 unaided steps here and a couple more steps there. I think she’ll be walking confidently before the month is out, which means it’s time to get her some walking shoes. It’s probably the second kid syndrome, but she pretty much learnt to walk all on her own because I was more relaxed about teaching her how to walk. One day, she just got up, steadied herself and started toddling around the house and we were all like “OMG you’re walking!! Where did you even learn that from?”

With National Day coming up next week, we saw a chinook flying past with the Singapore flag, followed by a very impressive helicopter formation. Truett is very much in his vehicle phase and he watched the whole thing with absolute amazement. The adrenaline junkie in him must have started hyperventilating. Something tells me that I may have a pilot on my hands.

I just realized that Tru looks like Dai Yang Tian from that 60’s drama serial where he goes around in that oh-so-fancy white singlet and shorts. That’s totally going to be all the rage next season’s and I hear the tight-fitting singlet range is about to hit the runway.

And that’s all I got for you. Excuse me while I attempt to give my son a side parting, DYT-style.