Sunday, 26 December 2010

Nat's 3rd Christmas celebration and Didi's 2nd. As they are older now, it's more fun, with the lead-up to Christmas, mall hopping for Christmas concerts, lugging out the Christmas tree, tucking into turkey and ham (we just realised Lucas loves turkey) and finally ... lots and lots of pressies! Every day, nat has been asking me if it is Christmas yet, and every day she counts the number of presents under the tree, alloting certain wrappers as her pressies and some for her brothers (by her standards, usually, the bigger ones are hers and the smaller ones are for her baby brother).


I've never met a little girl with quite so many make-up sets at this grand old age of 3, haha, so far it's 5 sets and still counting. With all the pressies, she actually has quite a comprehensive range, with necklace, ring, bracelet, lipstick, eyeshadow, high-heels and even a dressing table. Kind of ironic I think, considering her mum doesn't like to wear any make-up at all. Imagine our amusement on Christmas morning, when Nat uncovered a pair of high heel shoes (I think it came as part of a dressing table set), and clackity-clackked towards our room, feeling mighty pleased with herself. She even managed to dig up a pair for didi, who gamely decided he did not mind a pair of heels as well :O The heels did not last long on him, though, he was more interested in his remote control jeep and play-dough.

Ah, what one would give to be young again :)

Check out nat the party girl, she loves to dance! And that little space there is her personal dancing stage, where she gives frequent concerts to her adoring audience (uh that's me I think!)

Sunday, 19 Dec 2010

Who can resist these little impish faces? :P I've been spending a lot of time with them, sometimes we hit shopping malls, other times we head towards the park or play gyms. Every night, both take turns to come look for me at night. Didi usually potters to my room about 1am, saying make milk and tugging at my hand to sleep with him for a while. Nat will come over nearer 3am and whisper softly in my ear if I could come over and sleep with her for a little while. Actually, it's really no issue to get up, I think my body is kind of adapted to sleeping for a few hours each time, and I generally still function quite well in the morning. Sigh, after all, kids grow up so quickly, they probably won't want o'le mummy's company when they sleep, when they get older. Haha!

Interesting conversation I had with Nat recently:

Nat: Auntie is a good cooker.

Me: How about Mummy?

Nat: Mummy is not a good cooker.

Me (Protesting): Why not?

Nat: Because she always watch TV.

Oops, better hit the kitchen more ... hehe ... going to try out this delicious looking beef stew recipe I found on the internet later. Wish me luck! If it turns out nice, I will post some pics. If not, don't ask, hehe!

Afternote: The beef stew was a success, but did not manage to capture nice, sharp pics on my iphone, so no pics to show :)

Saturday, 4 Dec 2010



Last week, I signed nat and luke up for a holiday programme at the enrichment centre near my house. Luke had been attending this centre in the last term and seemed to enjoy the class. I had observed some of the activities in the class and was pleased with the way they were conducting the activities.

For the holiday programme, they had different themes each week, and I signed the kids up for the FARM theme. Luke was in a parent-accompanied class, while Nat was in a non-parent accompanied class. Nat, who doesn't like break from routines, seemed reluctant to go at first (she kept insisting this was didi's school and she wanted to go to her own school), however, during the class, she looked like she enjoyed herself. I sometimes wonder whether she realises that she will be going to another class in Nursery next year with different teachers, how will she react?

Anyway, Friday marked the last day of the holiday programme, with a visit to a cow and vegetable farm. It was certainly exciting for the kids to come up close and personal with the cows and even to feed and milk them.

Nat was intrigued but scared, didi bravely marched on, with little fear of the cows. The vegetable garden tour was relatively hot, and nat complained incessantly about the heat and sweat and ants and mud and ... However, taking the advice of the uncle farmer, I just told her to bear with it and to try and enjoy nature instead. She did listen, although, towards the end, she insisted we go back to the bus with air-condition. At the vegetable, she also got her hands dirty digging in soil and planting her very own plant cutting (I can't for the life of me remember the name of the plant).

Overall, it was quite an enjoyable outing, although I was truly wiped out by the end of the session. A nice lunch with Gary perked me up though and we were off shopping thereafter without the kids! Nice ... haha!

Sunday, 28 November 2010

This is Nat's first family portrait that actually looks like one. See if you can recognise all the members of the immediate family, everyone is quite obvious, I think, except didi Lucas, who looks more like an alien blob. I told her so and she said she drew a flower beside him to make up for it, haha, funny girl. Her brother just adores her so.

Today, nat had her tennis lessons again in the morning. This is a much better time for us, instead of her previous lessons, which were in the middle of a weekend afternoon, when everyone of us much preferred to be having a nap. Didi also has the freedom to run and play around in the large sports hall. Check out my tennisbaby's moves!

Sunday, 28 November 2010

Check out my 2 favourite men and little miss red riding hood!

With the start of the Christmas celebrations, last week was a hectic week of bringing the kids to catch the free concerts at the mall. We started off with Dora, and went on to Barney, Hi-5 and Thomas. We did catch a bit of Yo Gabba Gabba at Taka but that was more coincidental and was not meant to be a purposeful trip there. I think we have about covered most of the characters that the kids adore, except for Diego maybe. So we will probably take a breather next week. Last year, we also went to Sentosa for some storytelling session which the kids enjoyed, so I may plan another trip there as well.

Yesterday, we also made our way to Loewen Gardens at Dempsey. Was intending to got to Botanic Gardens but the weather got hot, so I thought why not head on to Loewen where the kids could enjoy themselves at the mini playground with trampolines and slides. What a good idea that was, the kids were really happy, while Gary and I sat down to sip coffee. Was also telling Gary that I was learning to let go of my baby girl and give her some independence. Tempted as I was to follow her around the playground, watching out for her, I knew she was old enough to take care of herself, within constraints and so I let her run off for about ten minutes each time before taking a peek, just to make sure everything was alright. Read somewhere that there is a Farmer's Market at this place next week, will probably check it out. I love Farmer's Markets, reminds me of the markets we visited in Australia during our trips.

It's so nice that I have regained my energy, so different from the first trimester when I was so moody and listless. Only thing is our little mei mei is finally starting to grow in the tummy, and it seems to have ballooned in the past month. Gary was just saying, before you know it, you'll reach that stage when you start waddling like a duck, haha, so mean. Yet, he remains amazed at how I can bound out of bed in a split second when the kids cry at night. Haha, call it the miracle of motherhood.

Monday, 22 November 2010

It's been a "chiong" weekend for us. One of those that always makes Gary shake his head and wonder why we are rushing about, but yet he will gamely join us anyway.

On Friday, we brought Didi Lucas to buy his school uniform. It's always an "emotional" time when you see your little baby in his school uniform for the first time. He gamely let us try on the sizes for him and even gamely posed for us with a big smile. Sigh ... my baby is growing up.

In the evening, Daddy joined us at Raffles City to watch a Dora Christmas concert at the shopping mall. It is something I have been doing every Christmas season, bringing them around to the various malls to watch the free concerts. There are really too many to cover everything, so I usually limit to about 3 of their favourite characters, like Dora, Barney and Hi-5. Gary looked utterly bored and Dora running around the stage gave me a headache, haha, but the kids were fascinated with the show, their eyes focused on the stage all the time. Anyway, since it was the first day that the show was on, it was not as crowded so that was nice. On weekends, these shows are usually so jam packed that there is hardly any standing room.

On Saturday, we brought to kids to Botanic Gardens. I was just lamenting to Gary that we haven't really been going outdoors very much these days as compared to the past, when we would enthusiastically trudge to Hort Park every week for 2-hr walks. It could be age, it could be the fact that everyone is always taking turns to get sick but I guess it's something we got to work back into our routine. This time round, we attempted to bring Nat's bike and Didi's bug for them to ride. In the past, bringing the bike to the park always ended up as a chore as Nat would hop off the bike after one minute and we would spend the rest of the trip lugging it up and down the park. This time round, she stayed on it for most of the journey and even Luke slowly but surely inched along on his slow moving little bug that worked purely on leg power.

On Sunday, Nat had her tennis lessons again. I am so proud of her, she has picked up the basic strokes of tennis very quickly and enjoys her lessons weekly. She needs constant encouragement from us and during the lessons, Gary and I, together with Didi will be there, rooting for her and entertaining her when it is not her turn at the courts. Gary has asked me before if Nat is too young for us to get her so serious about tennis. But my feel is that as long as she is enjoying it, why not? It allows her to pick up a sport, that she may well continue into primary and secondary school. It instils focus and discipline in her. Even if she decides later that it is not her cup of tea, it is still a good sport to enjoy socially. So as long as she enjoys her lessons, we will probably continue with it.

Wednesday, 17 November 2010

It's been a while since I last blogged, not too sure why I seem to have lost the inspiration to blog in the last few months. Nevertheless, I will try to get back into the groove. Anyway, for those who don't already know, we do have a 3rd bun baking in the oven :) due sometime in March next year. While it was not exactly planned, after the initial fatigue, depression and insanity from the first trimester, we are looking forward to the new addition to our family. My clairvoyant firstborn had earlier already predicted that she would have a baby sister, way before we even told her about the baby. Luke, influenced by his big sister, seems ready to be a kor kor. It's scary, for Gary and I, being parents to 3 kids. Sometimes I freak out just thinking about it. Yet, other times, I truly enjoy the experiences and joy that the kids bring into our family.

Luke is just over 2 years old and starting to show his personality. While he can still be the sweet, affectionate little guy when he is in the mood, I feel that he has been overly-indulged by my maid and he often throws wild tantrums, whenever she is around. This really pisses me off. I know it's just a phase that he is going through and undeniably, there is always the "jealousy" of the maid taking over my role as a mum (a common problem for working mums). I've had stern talks with my maid over this matter and have also started the kids on a night routine, where they sleep together on their own. Tantrums are still an everyday affair but hopefully, the new routines and rules we set up will help minimise them in the long run. I guess with Luke starting school next year and the new baby coming along, tantrums will continue for a while but I strongly believe that we do need to instil some discipline in the kids, even from this young age and that tantrums are not just something that they will grow out of on their own.

Potty training is still ongoing for the little dude and I fear that he will still be in diapers when he goes off to school next year. Well, all kids progress at their own pace, I know he will get off the diapers when he is ready to do so. Take your time, little man.

Natalie has matured a lot over the past year. From the crying toddler who cried all the way through the first month of school, she has grown to love going to school and socialising with all her friends. Her favourite play activity in school is "playing in the kitchen corner" and she loves singing and dancing. Little Miss Chatterbox has received a reputation on the schoolbus for being very chatty and she tells me that sometimes the boys tell her not to be so noisy. Haha, the little girl takes such feedback in stride. Thanks to my mum, she is quite a bit vainer than me and her new obsession these days is to put "shining" on her fingernails (some kid's nail art thing that my mum got from the market). She loves reading and she will listen intently whenever you read to her, thereafter, she will grab the book and march off to her little corner and re-read the whole book. I don't think she can read yet, but she sure can memorise the words. Luckily her love for books has rubbed off on her brother and both love to rock on their chairs with a good book in their hands. Otherwise, they will be tapping away at their iPad (which Nat has staked claim to) and iTouch (the smaller screen is for Lucas).

Looking in the mirror, I see myself definitely looking more tired but at the end of the day, I know the kids are worth all the effort and love we put in.

Wednesday, 3 November 2010

Nat and Lucas have been enjoying themselves over the weekend. On Sunday, we headed on down to the Hort Park. There was a carnival of sorts being held there and the kids had fun munching on cupcakes, playing in the bouncy castle, and Nat's absolute fave part of the carnival was the face-painting station, where she got flowers painted on her face. Luke was too squirmy in the seat, so we got him a cute little crawly caterpillar on his hand instead.

Then today, Nat's school had an excursion to a dog training school. I've always been scared of dogs since I was young, and it was a good friend's nice big dog, Piper that cured me of my fear at the ripe old age of 20. So, I have always exposed the kids to dogs since young so that they won't have this fear. Seems to have worked, there were like more than 20 dogs at the school and nat showed no fear, gamely patting them, playing with them and watching them swim. It was a nice outing, something different, and it's nice that I am able to accompany her for such outings. When they get older, they still go on excursions, but parents are no longer allowed to tag along, so I am gonna enjoy this while it lasts.

Sunday, 17 October 2010

We had a picnic at Botanic Gardens 2 evenings in a row. There are actually 2 nice picnic spots for recommendation. One area is in the main garden, the slopey greens that face the symphony stage. This is the more popular of the two and after your rough and tumble on the slopes, you can adjourn to the pond to feed fish. Yesterday, as we arrived at the Gardens a bit late, we headed for the new gardens instead (I think it is nearer the Cluny Road end). We laid our mat down facing the lake and had our dinner/picnic. It's actually quite peaceful, this place. It is definitely less crowded and one can look at the swans and mandarin ducks while having dinner. Also, as it is not situated on a slope, so you can let the kids wander around quite a bit further.

See the difference between the pair? Nat was inclined to chomp on a spoonful of rice fed by me before running off to explore. Lucas was more content sipping on his lotus root soup (he is a soup kind of person, just like me) and finish his meal before exploring.

As the sky got dark, we headed home after posing for a nice pic.

These 2 have learnt how to pose for pics nicely, under my tutelage. On the way to the car, we saw some bats and I told nat about how vampires can sometimes disguise as bats. She was totally in awe and went on to make up her own story in the car, that had me in chuckles. Anyway, to cut a long story short, her version of a vampire does not feed on little kids and is in fact quite pretty and friendly. It's preferred mode of travelling is via a "hunted" (haunted) tunnel. Haha, this girl is reaching a stage when she likes to role play and tell stories, I do enjoy listening to her interesting tales.

Saturday, 16 October 2010


Do toddlers dream? I think they do. Just the other day, nat came to my room saying that she did not want to go fishing. Recently, we had been telling her we would be bringing her to the Bottle Tree Park for some longkang fishing. However, due to the rain, we never quite made it. The memory of our conversation must have stuck in her mind, resulting in the dream. I asked her why she did not want to go fishing? She replied that a seaweed had hugged her and refused to let go, there was a lot of drama involved, about the seaweed being dripping wet and hugging her tightly. It was actually quite funny.


Then, just yesterday, she was playing with the iPad and listening to the story about a Little Red Hen. In the story, the hen and friends were having breakfast. Nat came to me in all seriousness and said "Could I have this for breakfast, like the Little Red Hen?" I looked at the picture, expecting some exotic food. To my surprise, the hen was just having cereals with milk. Oh well, you can guess what Nat will be having for breakfast this morning.




We rounded up yesterday with a picnic at Botanic Gardens. Glad that the children have reached that age when it's really a lot easier to bring them out. Here they are, feeding themselves fried rice and enjoying the natural surroundings. I end off today's entry with my usual phrase, this pair can be the sweetest siblings in the world and in the next moment, will be hitting one another over the heads. Sigh, my babies.

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Amazingly, nat has progressed from the Baby Ballet class to the next level. Hurray ... She still enjoys it quite a bit so I'll let her continue this for a while more. Check out her progress, the teacher is trying to teach them to move to the rhythm.

Friday, 1 October 2010

My little man and his fave expressions!

Thursday, 30 September 2010

Interesting week with the kids. Nat's school had a celebration, where they invited the parents to a mini-concert put up by the pre-nursery kids. Although the performance by each class lasted all of 1-2 min only, I thought it was a nice effort. Helps in building up the confidence of the kids and the parents enjoyed watching their little ones perform. Thereafter, there were some scavenger hunt and art and craft activities.

Check out nat's boat, it actually sails, I'm impressed! We rounded off the day with a mini class party and I enjoyed catching up with her classmate's parents, whom I had not seen for a while. We were just reminiscing on how time seems to fly by, wasn't it not too long ago that we were all hanging around the school compound in the first week of school, spying earnestly on our kids to see if they were crying. Now, they have all settled happily in the class.

Didi Lucas has also been enjoying himself. One of his favourite activities is chit chatting with Mummy. Every day, he chatters away, telling me about the characters in his Dora storybooks or pointing outside at the birds in the garden. I also love the way he struggles to keep his eyes open as he keeps peeking, to make sure that you are lying beside him, just before he falls asleep. He loves having Mandarin lessons with Mummy and always declares ever so loudly, that he is reading Chinese, although his accent is really terrible. Frankly, we are still stuck at ren (person) and kou (mouth) at this stage, got to get the accent right before we move on, haha!

In the mornings, we spend some time at the playground, where he never fails to mesmerise the old aunties there, doing their morning exercise. The friendly dude will always say hi, and exclaim loudly "so wet" if he finds the playground equipment still wet from early morning dew or rain the night before. He loves to amuse Mummy with his happy face and angry face act, but this boy is also a terror when he is throwing a tantrum. Throughout the day, he and nat are constantly screaming and yelling, as they terrorise one another. Yet, they still enjoy playing together.

Sunday, 26 September 2010


Haven't been updating my blog as often as I should, will try to be more diligent about it. The kids are growing up so quickly, it's really chaotic bringing them out now. Gone are the nice relaxing strolls down Orchard Road. Super active lucas will be clambering out of the stroller as quickly as you put him in. As for nat, she has a bad habit of taking off her shoes when she is in her stroller. The next moment, she decides to jump off the stroller, she forgets that she is barefooted, and off she trots. Gary and I spent countless moments chasing after her with her shoes. Both kids are extremely talkative as well. We hear incessant chattering from the back of the car all the time. But it's nice to see the siblings interacting. From time to time, nat will give her baby brother a big hug and lucas is ever ready to shower his sis with love and kisses.

It's interesting to watch as the kids move into different phases and milestones. One thing Gary and I agree is that this stage in their lives is one of the most enjoyable for them and for us, and we will enjoy it together with them as best as we can :)

Thursday, 23 September 2010

With my maid on overseas leave, I have been home with the kids, mostly 24/7. I must say it's not been as stressful as I initially thought and in fact there are beautiful moments that I really enjoy.

1. Time to spend one-on-one with both kids respectively. When nat is in school, I spend the whole morning with lucas. Some mornings are spent at enrichment class where he always has a good time. In fact, today the topic was on turtles and luke was totally intrigued by the turtles crawling in the tank. He is speaking a lot more and surprises me every day with words he knows. I also spend more time with nat in the afternoon, after our nap, we have time to do phonics and Chinese lessons. Normally, after work, I am so wiped out that I often forget about her lessons.

2. After a few nights, I have got the hang of their sleep time routine. Although they do not sleep like clockwork at 8:30pm, I no longer feel so irritated. We spend a longer time poring over books and switch off the light and chit chat till one of them or mummy falls asleep first. I am so proud of my kids, they can actually sleep by themselves in the room and do not need me there to accompany them the whole night.

3. With longer hours spent at my mum's place, I have more time to chit chat with her, something I have always enjoyed doing since young.

Well, we are almost halfway through the first week, looking forward to the weekend when Gary will be at home to help me. As usual, we will probably do something really active, to tire both him and the kids out, haha!

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

Bedroom adventures with the kids. Last night, I had such a hard time putting the kids to bed.

8pm: I thought that was a decent time for bed, so made their bottles of milk and shooed them off to bed. Did some light reading with them till 8:30pm.

8:30pm: Lights off! But the kids were still too hyped up, kept talking and talking even though I told them sternly that it was time for bed.

9:00pm: They were still not asleep but I figured that if I got out of the room and closed the door, they would soon get tired and fall asleep on their own, haha, so naive.

9:10pm: Lucas trots out of the room declaring that he needs the potty, nat follows close behind him. Only one potty to share between the two of them, how? Nat used the portable potty while I held Lucas on the toilet bowl. Nat has issues using the toilet bowl when she is reading her Archie comic, because she needs her hands free to hold the book and can't steady herself on the toilet bowl.

9:30pm: We are finally done with the toileting needs. This time round, I separate the 2, nat sleeps in her own room, while Lucas sleeps in my room. Both pretend to sleep on their beds, the moment I get out of the room, I hear the little pitter patter of footsteps and they are sneaking out of their individual rooms. They catch me having a biscuit for supper and demand a piece each. Haha, these two really make me laugh :) I admit I was a little sheepish at being caught by them while being greedy.

10:00pm: Lucas insists on going back to the room to sleep with his sister. He ends up falling asleep on nat's bed, I chit chat with nat for a bit before she falls asleep as well. Phew! What a night.

My best memories for the night was when we were lying in the dark in bed and both babies smothered me with big wet kisses. Such beautiful memories and experiences make all the frustration worth it.

Sunday, 19 September 2010

And so today, marks the first day we are home alone with the 2 kids. My maid has gone off for her overseas home leave yesterday night. How will we survive? Haha, I think the real test is during the weekdays when it's just me and the kids, when Gary's off to work. I do wonder whether I have got so used to depending on my maid and if I can cope alone. Stay tuned!

Wednesday, 1 September 2010

Time flies, I can't believe baby boy will be 2 years old next week. He is a handful, a pocket dynamo and half the time, he is clambering out of the playpen and giving me heart attacks. But, he is still my sweetheart and I love him so. Check out the cool slide I rented just for his birthday. He is quite the little poser now.

Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Last weekend, we went a good friend's wedding. I'm not really one for weddings, would usually give it a miss rather than turn up, haha, but I would definitely not miss this friend's wedding. We have been friends since we were 13 years old and we are now 33 :) Can you imagine? While we may not see each other all the time, the bonds of friendship are strong. And it is especially meaningful to see and feel the happiness exude from her on her special day.

Nat was the flower girl at the church ceremony. Earlier in the week, during rehearsals, my baby had given me grief by throwing a tantrum, refusing to practice the march-in. However, on the day itself, it must have been the whole wedding atmosphere and excitement, she actually came through and played her part beautifully. I guess the beautiful bouquet of flowers that my friend had ordered for the flower girls played a part in enticing her. After the ceremony, she even turned to me and said "I want to get married!" Haha, ok, baby girl, all in good time. I am sure that when the time comes, and we actually read this blog again, we will both have a good laugh.

Friday, 27 August 2010

It's been a while since I have updated on nat's swimming. Over the past year, she has made quite good progress and can swim a short distance on her own. It always feels me with pride when I see her swimming during her lessons. Makes all the hours spent at the pool with her well worth it.

This week, she also started taking the school bus to school. It's been very tiring, braving the early morning traffic daily to fetch her to and from school, and going to work thereafter. I hung on for more than half a year, but finally decided to throw in the towel and let her have a go on the school bus. Seems to have worked out well, for now, she was whiney and I was guilty on the first day, but thereafter, she seems to be fine. As parents, sometimes it is so hard to let go, after all, I keep thinking that she is only 3 years old, isn't it too soon? Guilt, guilt! Not easy emotions to live with.




Parenting is never easy, but the frustrations are also accompanied by the joy we experience with our children.

Saturday, 21 August 2010

My baby boy has learnt the skill of melting my heart :)



All he needs to do is scrunch up his face, like such, and say "mummy", whatever he wants, I'm sold!

He has also learnt how to gain sympathy from willing volunteers like myself, he comes to you and pretends his eyes are painful, and wants you to blow! Do that, and he is one contented little boy! He may be at the height of his tantrums at this age, but he is also at the height of his cuteness :)


Tell me, who can resist the rosy cheeks and impish smile?

Wednesday, 18 August 2010

It's been almost a term since nat started her tennis lessons. Overall, she's found it quite enjoyable. The coach gets along very well with her and she has developed a "mean" backhand. Sometimes, when I look at nat, I see a lot of myself. My mum started me on tennis young too (although, not at age 3.5 haha) and I have really enjoyed the game since. Never really did like it much on a competitive level, but socially, it's quite fun. I have fond memories of when I "challenged" my Caucasian teacher to a tennis match in JC and lost miserably, even with the whole class coming to cheer me on. But hey, what the heck, it was all in good fun! I hope you continue to enjoy the game, baby nat!

Wednesday, 11 August 2010

It has been a while since I blogged. Blogging is all about inspiration, some days, you just can't conjure up the energy to be enthusiastic about daily happenings in life. On other days, it flows in a continuous stream.

The kids are developing fast. Didi is officially in his terrible twos, throwing numerous tantrums a day, screaming, hitting his sister, climbing onto the kitchen counter top by stepping on the kitchen shelves and saying hi from that high vantage point (yes, we nearly had a heart attack!), coming to you with a sorrowful look and tear-stained face. Yet, he is the same boy who will come to you daily, put his face on your lap and say "wuv", the same boy who plucked some bougainvillas from the neighbours next door and gives it to mummy, and the same boy who says "sweet miss" (instead of sweet dreams) every night at bed time.

Nat is no longer a little baby, sometimes I feel she is so grown up. She is totally obsessed with lipsticks and nail polish (the irony is that mummy does not wear make-up much), princesses and barbie dolls. She loves reading (although I still think she is memorising most books) and interestingly, she will pick up my thick small-print novels and pretend to read it for hours. One day, I fell asleep with her doing that and when I woke up half an hour later, she was still "poring" over the book. Recently, I had slackened in my enthusiasm to teach her Mandarin and she came up to me indignantly the other day and said "Mummy, you have not been teaching me Chinese." Haha, who's the mum here? Anyway, I was glad to note that she has picked up some Mandarin from my earlier lessons with her. When we were in Orchard Road the other day, she pointed to a signage on a building and said "That's zhong1 xin1 (I can't seem to write any chinese characters here) and the other one says da4." At that moment, I was really proud of nat, she is actually absorbing what I teach her, instead of just purely memorising it. She kind of likes drawing as well and the picture above, which she vandalised my swing with is her version of a traffic light.

Some days, I think I am reaching a mini "mid-life" crisis here. Some days, I really adore my kids and just love them to bits. On other days, particularly when they are screaming the house down, I look at them and resent the fact that I am so totally bogged down with the responsibilities of parenting. But as always, the negative feelings pass and I end up feeling guilty for having such thoughts. Oh well, who said parenting is easy?

Sunday, 1 August 2010

Haven't been sleeping great recently, so what is one to do when one is wide awake at 4:30am in the morning? Watch cable, haha! And there is much to learn from cable TV.

My 2 favourite shows running at those wee hours of the morning, are Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and Take Home Nanny. Ok, ok, so they aren't the most inspiring or educational shows, but hey it keeps me entertained.

Diners. Drive-ins and Dives features a guy who goes around America searching for interesting and unique food, from pubs, to drive-ins to diners, just about anywhere. Luckily though, watching him devour chunks of tantalising steak, hamburgers and seafood doesn't make me fat, since I'm not big on this kind of food, anyway. Phew!

As for Take Home Nanny, it's about how a professional nanny advises troubled families on how to tame the naughty behaviour of their children. While I realise this is a reality show, some of the tips from the show is quite good, especially since I have been feeling increasingly frustrated with my baby boy as he enters the Terrible Twos.

Some tips to share:
1. Parents to keep calm and talk to the children in a calm and level voice. Sometimes when the kids behave badly, you are so ready to scream and yell at them, but control your emotions.

2. Consistency - When reinforcing a rule or behaviour, consistency is key. If the children realise they can get away with whining and crying, they will.

3. Choices - Sometimes, children want to feel in control. It's perfectly normal behaviour. One option is provide them with limited choices e.g what to wear. Instead of opening the whole wardrobe to them, give them a choice of this or that. They get to assert control within limits.

4. Never let children get away with bad manners. You need to reinforce the idea that as parents, they need to respect you and will and should not get away with rude remarks or hitting.

5. For older kids, it is good to set up a "work-station" for them, a small quiet area where they can have their own space to do homework or light reading.

I guess, that's all I can remember for now, so long, till the next episode, if I happen to wake up early again.

Sunday, 18 July 2010

I have not been updating my blog regularly, not too sure why, uninspired, tired, bored? Life goes on day after day. While walking around Funan mall today, I just remembered how Gary and I used to come to this mall a lot, before we were married, just to check out the new tech stuff on the market. Life seemed a lot more carefree then, no kids, no responsibilities, it was just about having fun. Fast forward, it's just been less than a decade, still the same place but there we were, with our two kids. No more checking out the cool tech stuff at our own leisurely pace, with nat running all over the place and lucas doing the same. They are at this age, when they are superbly mobile and perpetually fighting. Just take your eye away for a second and the duo will be off in a flash.

It's great being parents, but I guess sometimes, one just needs to take a breather. After all, no matter how frustrated you feel now, it all melts away when your baby plants a baby fresh kiss on your face, after you fell asleep on the couch, watching Little Einstein with them for like the hundredth time.

Saturday, 10 July 2010

Just the other evening, we caught sight of a beautiful rainbow in the sky. Every stared in awe at it, then nat turned to me and said " Mummy, why is there a rainbow?". Uh-oh! I was like totally blank for a minute, I know the answer right, or do I? Something about light and water and uh light ... haha ... at the moment, the only answer I could think of was "Uh, baby, did you know you can find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?" Phew, it worked and she was distracted.

Later, I googled to find an explanation for how a rainbow is formed. Basically, sunlight shines onto water droplets in the sky, forming a beautiful spectrum of colours through refraction. Hehe, for the record, when I did explain to nat, I kind of left out the word refraction. Hey, give this poor mum a break, it's the end of the work week and I am tired ... and I sure ain't got an explanation of the word "refraction".

Thursday, 8 July 2010

A little treasure that I found in my archives. What a difference 3 years make!