to Kirsten with love

A letter to my lamb chops

February 22, 2011

To my juicy little lamb chops,

Momma meant to write you a letter for your 18th month but as you will eventually come to realize, I’m not very good with dates so I’m just going to call it a letter for your 19th month 9th day, just because.

That’s also way cooler, depending on how you look at it because very few people get letters for being 19 months and 9 days. Half full, baby, always half full.

You’ve finally reached the point where I want you to stop growing and stay exactly the way you are for the next 25 years. Ok no, I take that back. Grow to the point where you outgrow your terrible twos, then stop. I’m really hoping that’s tomorrow. When you’re not upset or screamy, you’re easily the sweetest baby in the world and that’s saying a lot because I’ve seen many sweet babies in my time.

1. You always wake up with a smile. I don’t know how you do it but every single morning, you wake up with a sleepy grin and a “good morning mommy” that always makes me feel less crabby.

2. You get real upset when others cry, which makes you so susceptible to emotional blackmail. Like when you refuse to hug me, all it takes is for me to pretend to cry and you come running with arms wide open. Some might call this exploitative and I would agree, but since this phase is probably not going to last very long, I am going to milk it for all it’s worth.

3. You’re absolutely fearless. I’ve never seen you afraid of anything at all. Not of heights, speed, water, insects, lizards, roaches or slimy worms.

4. You’re so excited about everything. Who wants to go to the park? YAYYY GO PARK! Who wants to go swimming? YAYY GO SWIMMING! Who wants to have lunch? YAYY HAVE LUNCH! Who wants to sleep? YAYY SLEEP!

5. You’re obliging to the point that your brother uses you as his props for all his bizarre games. One day you’re a tree, then a cat, then a rock, then his slave.

I’m just glad you’re mine.

Love,

momma

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too awesome for words

I AM GOING TO WALT DISNEY WORLD FLORIDA!!!

February 21, 2011

I’m going to stop yelling now. Just that I’m having the sort of Monday one only dreams of having. First off, Tru told me this morning that he wanted to pat his sister to sleep and chased me out of the room. I knew they were never going to fall asleep like that but I spent the next 30 minutes drinking coffee and having a bit of me time while they giggled away playing with bears on my bed.

Then I got a call from Mai, Disney South East Asia’s Director of Media Relations, with epic news. I was halfway feeding the kids and over the lunchtime mayhem, I was able to make out the following words on the phone: Walt Disney, conference, Florida, email details, so I was all “sure, send me the details, we’ll talk after lunch.”

2 minutes later when I saw the email, I started screaming and running around the house yelling DISNEYWORLD!!

Ok, back up a little. Ever since I started blogging, I’ve wanted to go to conferences like BlogHer. To sit in sessions with other moms who are as passionate about blogging. To ogle at the stalwarts of the mom-blogging community and finally meet all the people whose blogs I’ve been reading all this while. But these conference were halfway around the world and I’d have to fly 48 hours both ways just to be there for a couple of days.

Then last year, Walt Disney World launched an annual Disney Media Moms Social Celebration in Walt Disney World. In other words, it’s kind of like BlogHer, except more exclusive and with extra Disney magic. Last year’s panelists included Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki (for real!!) and Maxine Clark (of Build A Bear Workshops) – enough to make me drool.

This year’s conference, which will be from 17-20 Mar, is already sold out but wait for it, they’ve reserved a place for a Singapore rep. I’m still in shock because out of all the awesome mommy blogs we have here, somehow they decided to send me. That means my airfare, accommodation at Disney Resort Hotel, passes to Disney World and meals are fully sponsored by Disney. I didn’t think I could love Disney any more than I already do, but OMG YES I CAN!

Also, I’m a little nervy because now if I make a complete arse of myself stalking Guy Kawasaki in Florida, everyone will know.

Note to self: Must. be. cool.

PS. I’m definitely going to bring along large sunglasses and a scarf as a form of disguise just in case.

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a spot of singapore

Flowers would be so much more interesting if they could wiggle

February 18, 2011

Went to the Sentosa Flowers exhibition last week to admire flowers. To be precise, my mom and the kids went to admire the flowers, we just went along to check out the new Sentosa Boardwalk and have an excuse to get out of the house.

It was kind of like the time we went to the conservatory of flowers in San Francisco. I allocated an entire afternoon to spend admiring the different flowers in bloom but we got there and after 2 minutes, we were having this conversation.

Me: Wow, nice flowers.

Kel: Very nice..and so many different types too.

*extended pause*

Me: They all look the same though. They’re just there not doing anything.

Kel: Flowers should wiggle or something, it’d be so much more interesting to look at them.

Me: I know! At least with animals, you sometimes get to see them doing the naughty-naughty like on the Nat Geo channel.

Kel: Ok, how about I take a picture of you pretending to read a magazine so it looks like we spent an entire afternoon chillaxing with flowers and then go shopping?

We were out of there in 10 minutes and spent the rest of the day at Union Square. True story.

Right, back to the Sentosa Flowers. The boardwalk from Vivo was lovely, with the cool breeze and scenic sea view. If you got tired, you could even hop onto the travelator for a quick rest.

The flowers were ok, considering that I’m not the most discerning flower connoisseur. There were a lot of them in many different colors, which is good enough for me. These days, the most important criteria is whether the kids had fun and as a rule of thumb, they’re happy as long as we’re not stuck at home.

The exhibition should be over by now but you can still go check out the Sentosa Boardwalk. I’d recommend going in the late afternoon but if you’re the commando sort who doesn’t mind the scorching heat, then you can pretty much go anytime you want.

PS. Voting for The Bloggies is closing this weekend and if you completely forgot to vote, that’s ok, I totally forgive you. There’s still 2 more days to do it.

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