i embarrass myself sometimes, seriously somewhat serious, stuff best described as not safe for parents, the gripes of wrath

A tale of two kinds of kids

November 23, 2010

So baby girl was going on and on about french fries at 7am this morning and because we haven’t had our dose of unhealthy fast food for a total of 6.5 days now, I brought her to McD’s for some Mcjunkfood. They didn’t have fries for breakfast but as far as my baby was concerned, anything made of potato and fried till golden brown was called FANFRIES!! Tater tots, hash browns, chips, criss-cut fries, all FANFRIES, GIMME FANFRIESSSS!!!

It’s lame to disclaim but before anyone gets all judgey on me, I’ll state that she only gets to eat them on very special occasions like birthdays or christmas or parties or when they catch me snacking on chips from my secret stash of Ruffles cheddar and sour cream (I’m a potato chip snob, it’s got to be worth the fats for me to eat it).

When we got to mackers, there were no baby chairs around except for one at the outdoor al fresco section. Which I went out to get while carrying Kirsten in one arm and bunch of groceries in the other. In my experience with Singaporeans, about 37% of people will hold the door open for a frazzled mother carrying twice her weight. About 50% will pretend to not notice and the final 13% will watch on like it’s some kind of slapstick comedy.

I encountered the final 13% today. In the form of giggling schoolgirls. As the previous guy walked out and the door swung back after him, I stuck out my foot to keep it open while balancing on the other and trying to manoeuvre everything else through.

The whole time, these 6 Secondary School girls were standing about 3 metres away, watching us struggle with the door. I know because I saw them momentarily pause midway through conversation and look at us. So I stood there pondering if I should make one of them hold the door open for me (while I gave them a lesson on helping others in need) when a little boy no bigger than 8 ran up, opened the door and ran off with his friend.

Saved by the bell, girls. And I found myself thinking, if I were that boy’s momma, I’d be so proud.

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picture perfect

A weekend of tea parties and sailor boy adventures

November 22, 2010

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.

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Kirsten goes to school, Truett goes to school

I forgot how fun it is to ditch school

November 19, 2010

Today, baby girl and I made plans to go school shopping, which was every bit as difficult as I remembered it to be. I keep making all these lists of why I should go with each school and I got more confused than ever.

Halfway through, we decided that getting all uptight about education at this point wasn’t doing anyone any good so we ditched it and went to the park instead. The way I see it, if she starts playgroup in January, I’m going to miss all these girly moments where it’s just me and my princess, so the school hunting can wait.

I got more important things to do today, like tumble around and pluck grass out of each others’ hair. Or rather have her put grass in my hair and laugh hysterically while I pluck it out.

PS. Give me a holler if you have a school in the Tampines/Simei area to recommend. I can go all the way up to East Coast area but if I can find something near home it’d be great. Also, I need a place that takes in 18-month-old kids, with great teachers and hopefully some Mandarin exposure. I can’t believe I’m having to do this all over again.

PPS. Yes, the photo with the bambi eyes was intentional. To translate, it means “Pretty please, I’d like to find a good school so I can get an education and all.”

Updated: This is going to be longish so I thought I’d reply the comments here instead. I did consider keeping baby girl at home with me till she was older or even home-schooling the kids for now but after seeing Tru adjust so well in school, I do feel that there are tremendous benefits of learning in a group setting, with socialization, following instructions, dealing with peer pressure among the top reasons.

Tru comes home telling me about his best friends and the things he learnt in school (I was surprised he knows caterpillars become butterflies). His teachers update me on his progress regularly and I love that he loves going to school. These days, Kirsten sees him going to school and she points to herself saying “school, school!”

I was hoping to put her in the same school as Tru but the bad news is that they’re not going to continue with their playgroup program next year so I now have to find a place that will take in the both of them. Also, I’m not really looking for a full-day or half-day childcare but just a 2-3 hour program in the morning. It’s mostly for the exposure and I’d like them to come back for their lunch, showers and naps, plus I get to spend the afternoons with them.

In my research, most kindergarten-style programs only take in kids turning 3, which is just right for Tru. Emmanuel playgroup would have been the perfect place but now that they’re closing, I’m scrambling to find somewhere that will take in Kirsten as well. If they won’t take her at 18 months, I don’t mind if they can take her in July after she turns 2.

On another note, I’m thinking of taking on more writing projects next year so it would be real nice to have 3 hours in the morning to get that done instead of having to start work at 10pm at night.

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