art attack, kids in motion

Bubble bubble, toil and trouble

December 21, 2011

On an average day, the one thing I spend the most time doing is figuring out ways to keep the kids occupied in a constructive manner. Because my toddlers have the attention span of a goldfish who suffered a severe head trauma. Multiple times. To various parts of the head. They spend about 3 minutes actually doing whatever it is I come up with and by the time I skip off to make my latte, there they are standing in front of me again.

“I’m bored.” “Mommy play with me.” “No, I’m not capable of feeding Elmo without adult supervision, you need to stand here and watch me while I feed him imaginary noodles. DON’T TOUCH MY ELMO you can only watch…ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION MOM???”

Yesterday, I started out with something easy – coloring. I printed out sheets of coloring pages with their favorite characters and gave them a box of crayons. And you know how long it takes for the kids to scribble lines on a piece of paper?

Exactly 2 minutes and 38 seconds, that’s how long.

It took me a longer to time to blue-tak them to the wall than it did for the kids to color them, just saying.

After we were done with our first activity, we moved on to something more interactive, like clay modeling. By interactive, I mean that I was the one made to do all the modeling while they yelled instructions at me. They obviously didn’t know that I’m possibly worse than they are at doing this. 7 minutes in, they were starting to fidget. “What are you making, mommy?” they asked impatiently.

“A mess, ok?”

If you must know, I was going for a snail, a boot and an elephant. They always make it look so easy in pictures but every single time I attempt to model clay, this is what I get.

Over the next hour, we played with trains, played with blocks, played with bigger blocks, played dress up, ate strawberries, ate yoghurt, ate gummies, played with trains again and just when I was about to cave and stick them in front of the telly, Kirsten discovered a sheet of bubble wrap.

I taught them how to squeeze the bubbles until they popped and they both thought it was the most hilarious thing in the world.

Sensing a breakthrough, I told them that they were supposed to pop every single bubble and whoever finished first would get a super special prize of…ANOTHER SHEET OF BUBBLE WRAP.

They sat for 40 minutes in silence and all I heard was the occasional *POP* *POP* *POP* of absolute bliss. They learnt fine motor skills, finger dexterity and mental focus while I learnt that sometimes, the best things in life are in fact, free.

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blogging about blogging, travelling

Back from the Nuffnang Blog Awards

December 19, 2011

I was in KL over the weekend to attend the Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards. The event went brilliantly and I had a chance to catch up with some of the other bloggers who were there.

Congrats again to Christie from Childhood 101 who won the Best Parenting Blog award. Nicely done! And thanks to everyone who voted for me – much appreciated!

We went without the kids and I spent most of the trip wishing I brought them along. I know, it’s just 3 days but I can’t go 3 hours without missing them. They obviously missed us too because the moment we got back from KL, Kirsten ran to the door, shouting enthusiastically “MOMMY’S HOME! SEE, MOMMY IS BACK, HI MOMMY HIIIIIIII” She jumped into my arms and squeezed me with all the strength she could muster.

When Tru saw us, he got all upset, like “I don’t like you, I’m not going to hug you” and refused to look at us. Which really meant “I missed you so much don’t you ever go for a holiday without me again.”

We didn’t promise to never travel without him but I did hug him all the way home until he felt better. It sort of made me feel better too.

***

This week’s Hipstamatic Happiness is a special KL edition with photos of all the places we visited during our trip. There’s a bit of shopping, some sightseeing and a lot of eating. We have a list of all the best food places that we absolutely had to visit when we are in KL and by the third day, we  started to run out of meals to fit in all that food.

KL does not agree with my dieting plans.

 

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Kidspeak

No, sweetheart, I didn’t scold you

December 14, 2011

Having spent so much time talking to the kids on a daily basis, I’d like to think that I don’t get surprised by the things they say anymore. It’s like I’m almost prepared for all the the random yet perceptive quips that they come up with. I sometimes stop and chortle at how astute some of their observations are but only when they’re really good.

Today, Kirsten said something that made me immediately call the husband because I had to rave about how hilarious it was.

***

I had just picked the kids from school and we were in the car on the way home. I thought I strapped both kids in their baby chairs but somehow, Kirsten managed to wriggle out of hers.

I looked in the rear mirror and there she was, standing in the middle grinning away cheekily.

I’m usually very particular about car safety and I get a little upset if they start mucking around while I’m driving. And because I’m alone with them in the car most of the time, the extra sternness helps them to know that whenever we’re on the road, mommy means business.

But instead of using my fierce voice to tell her to sit down, I just sighed and said “Kirsten, please go back to your seat, mommy’s driving.”

She then looked at me with those innocent eyes and said “Huh, you never scold me ah?”

I tried to explain like “Mommy really doesn’t like to scold you, I just need you to be safe” but I couldn’t stop laughing because that was the funniest thing I’ve heard all week.

***

While we’re on the topic of her wisecracks, here’s a clip of her singing Bad Romance. It sounds nothing like Gaga’s version but if you listen carefully, you’ll hear something that sounds vaguely like “Ohhhh…Bad Romance”

[powerpress]

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