The Bub in the Belly

Mother's Day 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Sun, 10 May 2015 15:59:00 +0000

Happy Mother's Day! Hope you had a good day, whether you were celebrated or celebrating someone. We had a lovely afternoon at the Bale Equestrian Club, where there was a Mother's Day programme for the day. We enjoyed a good buffet lunch and there was also a range of activities for the kids.

The highlight of the afternoon for the kids were the pony rides. There were a couple of horses too but our kids were much too short for them. The kids have been on ponies before so they were pretty confident in the saddle (of course the pony was led by a handler). There were also a couple of friendly donkeys roaming around and the kids were delighted to be able to get up close to them and play with them. Babydoll declared that they all belonged to her - "MY donkeys and MY horses".

There was a "Dress Up Your Mom" event, which Ryan asked me to participate in. The kids got to choose three accessories from a range of hats, scarves, flower leis, and other stuff, with which to adorn their moms with. Here I am, all dressed up!

Yes, babydoll is in make-up! That was from the face-painting station. She asked the face-painter to give her "Elsa". I was expecting that there would be some snowflakes on her face or something like that, so I was surprised when she came out with make-up instead! I guess this is a literal interpretation, huh.

We were there for about three hours. Well spent, I would say. The kids had a great time playing with the other kids there and I, of course, had a wonderful time being the guest of honour (ok, one of the guests-of-honour, if we must be accurate, heh). Happy Mother's Day!

Little dragon girl

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Thu, 07 May 2015 15:35:00 +0000

Babydoll was born in the Year of the Dragon and, yes, she breathes fire.

When I try to help her with something, she will simply say, "No, I can do it". And she usually manages to. Except for braiding hair and tying ribbons - I'm not out of a job just yet, heh.

If we tell her not to do something and she persists, we sometimes tell her - I said, "No". To which she will shoot right back - I say "YES"!

When she saw that a boy had pushed her big brother, she gave him the stink-eye. She coolly and firmly reprimanded him, "Hey, don't hurt my brother!" (That boy was a little bigger than her big brother and certainly a lot bigger than her.)

She will run along with boys twice her size to play football and she always manages to grab the ball in her arms, stubbornly holding on to it, despite the big boys crowding around her to get the ball back in the game. Fearless.

She learned to swim last month, simply because she dared to.

She will tell you, consistently, that her name is spelt "SUBW". Recently, she added an "I" to the end. Her big brother's name, she will inform you, is spelt "RTZY". She will not accept any challenge on this.

I always think that this quote from Shakespeare is apt to describe babydoll - "And though she be but little, she is fierce!" I've got to get that on a T-shirt/bag for her!

Ryan's birthday with the family

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Sun, 03 May 2015 18:06:00 +0000

Some more catch-up today. This is about Ryan's birthday with the family in KL, back in January.

Richard had some business meetings in KL which coincided nicely with the weekend before Ryan's birthday so we tagged along to KL with him. Ryan had a grand weekend, as he always does when he's there.

For his birthday cake, Margaret got his favourite cake ringed with Kit Kat! Yum yum. Plus marshmallows...yum yum yum.

Before the birthday cake at home, we brought everyone out for dinner at Naughty Babe Dirty Duck in Desa Sri Hartamas. We thought that we ordered quite a lot of food but I think we still didn't get enough to feed the hungry horde because the portions were quite small. Every time a dish of food hit the table, the food was gone in seconds!

Babydoll wasn't too interested in the food at the place. She got my brother to take her out to a bakery nearby to buy a doughnut! Babydoll is wearing a dress I made for her back in September 2014, which you can see better in this post.

Here's the birthday boy in his new jacket, which was a present from his Aunty Margaret. Margaret and her family had just got back from a holiday in Japan so there were plenty of gifts, birthday or otherwise, for him (and the rest of us).

Ryan's birthday was in late January, but he is already telling people now that he is "six and a half" and he asks, quite often, whether he will be turning seven soon. Oh my, how fast it goes, huh. Happy birthday love! We love you to the moon and back, always and forever.

Birthday goodies in school

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 17:44:00 +0000

A quick post on what we did for Ryan's 6th birthday celebration at school. I kept things very simple this year. First order of things was his birthday tee-shirt. Last year I spent too much time making the gifts for the class that I didn't have time to finish his birthday tee-shirt. This year, I whipped it up on the sewing machine the day before. It has a large number 6 on the back, as you can see. I actually made a similar one just a few weeks prior to this one - it had his name RYAN in a curve above the number '5' at the back. He really loves that he gets to display his name and his age, so I really should make more of these things.

For his little party in school, we made crowns for his teachers and his classmates. Initially I was planning to sew the crowns but after sewing a couple, including sewing twenty tiny jewels onto each one, I succumbed to practicality - I could not imagine sewing 24 of those. So I opted for this version - I just cut out the crowns from stiff felt and sewed an elastic strip at the back. For embellishment, we used adhesive felt letters which are ready-cut from the store. The letters correspond to the first letter of the recipient's name.

Here are the completed crowns! The two green ones in the front of the pile, with the red R's, were for Ryan. I like the one with the fancy cut but he chose the other one, with the jewels which I sewed on, because that was the one that I presented first to him. The red one with the jewels but without a letter is an extra.

For the birthday cake, we ordered mini eggless cube cakes from Emicakes in six different flavours (one of Ryan's classmates is not allowed to have eggs). We arranged them on a cake board in the shape of a '6', stuck candles in them, handed out the crowns, sang the Happy Birthday song (a few versions), blew out the candles and distributed the cubes. It was so efficient and went really, really fast, mainly because there was no need to cut a big cake and plate the pieces. I didn't snap any photos though. I really should have!

Anyway, that was that for this year. Simple and easy. If you're interested, here's a flashback to what we did for last year's school party.

Toys for all

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 14:14:00 +0000

We have never really approached toys with a "toys for boys" and "toys for girls" mindset. In Ryan's baby/toddler days, we would buy him toys like blocks, loose parts, construction parts, alphabet sets, soft toys (usually Sesame Street themed), and Lego. We did get him train tracks, which I suppose are more boyish, although he was more into the track building than the trains themselves. It was when he was five years old that he got interested in things like Hot Wheels, Transformers, and Paw Patrol, and recently, HexBug and Robocar Poli - stuff that I suppose would fit into the category of "toys for boys". We never pushed him into all this stuff though. Usually he would watch videos on Youtube about these toys and then mount an appeal for us to get them.

Little babydoll plays with all the "boy" toys. She will happily adopt a Robocar Poli toy, grab a couple of Hot Wheels for the bathtub, and put Ryan's robots in her handbag. On her last trip to the toy store, she picked out a Hot Wheels car. Be that as it may, she does have affection for "toys for girls". She loves kitchen/tea sets, playdough, soft toys and princess-ey stuff. Since she was introduced to the movie "Frozen" over Chinese New Year, she also feels a magnetic pull towards all things Elsa-related. These days, our hair-tying options are "Elsa or Anna?" meaning one or two braids? and she usually chooses Elsa.

Today's photo shows babydoll posing with her dollhouse. It was supposed to be a gift for last Christmas but I only opened and set it up last month, in March. I love the fact that it is taller than she is! She absolutely loves it. There is an Elsa doll in residence, of course. In addition, her nanny gave her some dolls for Christmas and they all live together there. Ryan plays with it too and often we will find Hot Wheels cars in there, together with the whole gang of Alphabet Robots, plus a couple of dinosaurs too.

I never tell my children that this toy is for boys or this toy is for girls, although they have gravitated naturally to the stereotypes (while still maintaining an interest in the toys supposedly for the opposite gender). I do think it's strange that we would tell our sons not to play with dolls, but expect them to become loving fathers. I think it's strange that we would tell our daughters that the "guy stuff" is not for them, yet tell them not to feel inferior to men. Perhaps the issue of toys is a small one, but I do think that it is a reflection of our mindset and besides, if we can't get the small things right then we're not going to do very well with the big things, eh?

Six

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 15:58:00 +0000

Ryan turned six in January and I honestly have difficulty remembering his babyness. Sometimes his little sister does or says something, and I ask - was Ryan ever like that? I've reached the stage where my memories of his baby days come to me in broad strokes, with little detail.

I cannot recall anything about Ryan's babyhood which was difficult or which stressed me out. I'm sure that there were some bad days but right now, the memories I have are only of good ones. Perhaps I'm a big picture sort of person, perhaps there weren't many bad days to begin with. Perhaps again, it's just the way mothers are wired. We forget the hard days and we let go of the stressful times. What's left is all good.

In the same way that I enjoyed Ryan's babyhood, I am enjoying the six year old version. He is as easygoing as he has always been, which is to say that he is easygoing towards other people - he is still fussy about his food! He's fun to be with, he's got lots of love to give, he's loyal to his friends and family, he listens to reason, and he can hold an intelligent conversation. Biased I may be, I think he's a great kid.

There are bad days, but they are few and far between and, to be fair, those days are only bad because I didn't handle them better. Parenting a six year old isn't quite the same as parenting a baby, eh? Ah well, the bad days are never a waste. Bad days teach us to make better decisions; they point us in the right direction. I'm learning as I go along and I'm aware and grateful that, with Ryan, it really isn't that difficult.

Just today, someone guessed that Ryan is five. It took me a second to consider whether to correct her or not - part of me is still amazed that six years have flashed past - but I did correct her. Because it's important to Ryan that he's six. He goes around telling everyone that he's six. It's his special number (until he turns seven, of course). He loves being six. (He loved being five too, actually.) Six is when you say goodbye to your schoolmates. Six is when you start anticipating going to "the big school". Six is when you finally tell your mummy, "I'm not a baby". Six is when you start believing, truly believing, that you are someone's big brother. Six is when you have thoughtful opinions about the world around you. Six is a big thing.

And yes, it's important to me too. I wanted her to know that I've had this amazing child for six wonderful years. I may have trouble recalling the bad bits, yes. Be that as it may, there are, overwhelmingly, so many good bits in those years, so much happiness and joy, so much laughter and love, so much personal growth and learning (on my part as well as Ryan's), that I wouldn't discount a single day. Six years old? Yes, oh yes.

Updates on Rachel at preschool

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 15:59:00 +0000

Babydoll started going to preschool in January this year and, well, she took to it like a duck to water. No issues at all, no tears. She was so happy - finally she could have her piece of the action. She was quiet for the first week, observing what was going on around her, deciding who she wanted to be friends with, and learning the class routines. She was soon comfortable enough to speak her mind and it wasn't long before her teacher told me, highly amused, that they'd had an "argument" over sharing, which ended with babydoll giving her the stink-eye. Hahaha! Her teachers are pretty cool, I like them.

Babydoll is a late addition to her class, together with one other student. The rest of her classmates had all done at least one term (or more) of preschool when babydoll started. I actually think that this fact assisted in a smooth settling-in for babydoll as her classmates were familiar with the class routines, eg. sitting down for reading time, sitting down for snacktime and lunch and putting away the plates and utensils, keeping her stuff in her cubby, plus nobody was crying. This environment, I imagine, is far less confusing and far less scary compared to being in a chaotic classroom of children who are all clueless.

The other new student did cry on her first day and - bad timing - she was crying at the classroom door when we arrived with babydoll. I saw babydoll's expression - a little spooked and slightly panicked - which made me think that babydoll might burst into tears as well. She didn't, my brave fearless girl. She got a hold of herself and walked right into the classroom. Amazing.

We watched her through the window for a while. It was some time before a teacher could attend to her as they were occupied with welcoming the students. Babydoll stood in the middle of the room, alone, watching everyone and taking it all in. After a while a teacher approached her and invited her to join a group that was using playdough. Babydoll had been using playdough a lot at home so I was quite happy about that - it would be familiar and comforting for her. After a while, she moved on to try painting at the easel, also something she was familiar with. That's when we left. When I picked her up after school, she was all smiles and her teachers told me that she'd had a great first day. She also met her brother in the course of her day, which helped, I think. From there on, it just got better.

In her first term, I regularly received hilarious recaps of her day in school, from her own teachers as well as other teachers in her school. One of her teachers told me, again highly entertained, that babydoll would regularly "escape", meaning babydoll would wander off from the group to do her own thing, and it would happen at least once a day. One day, her teacher was searching high and low for babydoll in the canteen, and finally found her, still in the canteen, but crouched down next to a plant pot, carefully examining the plant leaves, her tiny size well camouflaged by the massive plant.

Babydoll would also join up with Ryan whenever she saw him on the school grounds (usually during outdoor playtime) and sometimes she'd "forget" to return to her own class. This habit provided the background to another funny story - one day, babydoll had to put on her shoes but her shoes were nowhere to be found. Her teacher asked her where she left her shoes and babydoll told her, "In class". Well, her shoes weren't in her classroom. Her teacher searched all over the school grounds and came up with nothing. Until her teacher realised that the shoes must be in Ryan's classroom - and they were. They were neatly placed in Ryan's cubby.

Babydoll would also often go to her brother's class to play with their stuff, and she even "borrowed" their stuff. Ryan's teacher told me that she saw babydoll walking towards the sandpit with their stuff and when babydoll saw her looking, babydoll actually turned her body to hide the "borrowed" stuff while making a run for the sandpit. Heh heh. She's a wily one.

Babydoll has just started her second term now and I don't hear as many stories about her escapades. She has made some good friends among her classmates so she has her own little gang now. That probably occupies her a little.

There's lots more to share about babydoll but I'll leave that for another time. Meanwhile, enjoy the photos. They were taken last week outside our house.

Cheeky

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 17:29:00 +0000

Let's get this thing back on the road, shall we?

I usually take a break from the blog for December, and as it turned out, last December's break stretched into this year's April. To say that time has flown by would be an understatement - it has blasted past at the speed of constant change.

And yes, a lot has changed around here. There have been lots of good, great changes, which we deliberately and consciously engineered. Our life looks very different from how it looked six months ago, and we are very happy.

I'll update you as we go along. For now, be reassured that not everything has changed - as you can see, the littles still live in the water and babydoll is still as cheeky as ever.

Hello?

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 20:40:00 +0000

Insomnia. At half-past four in the morning. What better time to scroll through four months' worth of photos and memories for a post on my dusty blog?

This, my dear mother-in-law (aka my blog's number one fan), is for you.

Now back to bed.

Some sweetness for the weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 00:49:00 +0000

For our last "sweetness" post of 2014, here's the four of us wishing you all things sweet and wonderful for the coming new year!

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 15:59:00 +0000

We spent Christmas morning in church, followed by lunch at home (Richard cooked coq an vin!). The afternoon was about opening presents, and as usual, we still hadn't opened all of them by the end of the day. Ryan was especially pleased that Santa granted his request of a set of Alphabet Robots and spent a good part of the day playing with them before he considered opening another present. Something funny - one of his presents was a Hot Wheels track set, which I didn't want him to start setting up (it was near bedtime). So I asked him to open another present, which turned out to be ... yes, you guessed it ... another Hot Wheels track set! Hahaha!

It was a quiet Christmas - there were tentative plans to meet up with friends but nobody made the initiative to confirm the details, which we took as a sign that everyone really just wanted to spend Christmas at home with their families.

Babydoll wore her hanbok to church. This time we managed to convince her to wear the little jacket (jeogori) and she looked very convincing! A few people asked if we were Korean and some even greeted us in Korean!

It was a good Christmas - over too soon, as always. Have a blessed Christmas, everyone! May the Lord bless you and keep you!

Some sweetness for the weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 03:05:00 +0000

Popping in to share some sweetness! It's been a while, I know. I'm usually a little quiet on the blog in December - usually because I'm reflecting - this year, it's because I'm so so so busy!

Anyway, it's less than a week to Christmas - are you feeling festive? Our Christmas tree is up in the living room - always a good way to add some festive cheer. The tree looks a little crazy in the daytime but when the night falls and the twinkly lights come on, it looks pretty magical. We've got some presents already but they're not under the tree yet - we want to keep Santa alive and Santa only arrives the night before Christmas, yeah?

Ok, so here are the two rascals in a short Youtube video. Ryan is directing babydoll in a "Freeze! Go!" game and, around these parts, when we say "Go!", we mean, "Dance!" (Bonus point for you if you can guess where this was filmed!)

Have a great weekend!

Some sweetness for the weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Fri, 28 Nov 2014 15:59:00 +0000

Our routines have not run smoothly this week and things have been thrown off rhythm. Hopefully we can get everything and everyone back on keel next week. It's been a good week despite, or perhaps because of, the departure from the norm. Let's catch up next week, yeah? Have a good weekend!

Just vogue

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 07:08:00 +0000

Over the weekend, I had a few messages come through on my whatsapp groups on children getting their hands stuck in elevator doors. Scary stuff.

Our littles are quite good in the elevators. The only mischief they get up to is to squabble over who gets to press the buttons. The scariest thing that has ever happened is that babydoll once ran ahead into the lift on her own (so that she could get to press the buttons) and the doors closed, sending her alone to the ground floor. This was at our condo. Normally she would have been able to open the door on her own but not in our condo's elevator, because the open/close buttons are too high for her.

We weren't very alarmed, to be honest, because this happened in a "controlled space" - our condo - and we could predict what would happen. I was sure that she went to the ground floor because she would have pressed "1" and, once she reached the ground floor, she would not have been able to exit the elevator lobby because she would need an access card to do so. She also would not have wanted to - she'd probably either stay in the elevator or come out on the ground floor and wait for us. The only variable was if anyone got into the elevator in between so I raced down to the ground floor via the stairs while Richard followed in the elevator, checking every floor.

I found babydoll on the ground floor, outside the elevator, which had gone up to ferry Richard and Ryan. She was in tears, yelling at the elevator and pounding on its doors. I can honestly say that it was not a typical scenario for us; we are usually careful about elevators and the children usually do wait for us. Ryan, especially, will not even press the button for the elevator to come up to our floor unless everyone is together, waiting in front of the elevator. Also, this would never have happened outside our home - it was the familiarity of the scene that encouraged babydoll to rush into the lift.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. I wanted to share something that we do when the kids are inside the elevator to keep their hands safe and to keep them from touching stuff. So, if they are in a crowded elevator, I sometimes ask them to put "fingers on noses". This helps them to keep their hands to themselves, away from people and certainly, out of danger. This works when you want to shut the car door too!

Last weekend, Richard came up with a game that works to the same effect. He got them to strike a funny pose, and to hold the pose till the doors open again (it was just us in the lift). So here you see the two of them, vogue-ing away! He was playing the game with Ryan at first, but on the second time around, babydoll got right into it as well. It was really funny!

Some sweetness for the weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 08:34:00 +0000

The weekend is almost here! Five weekends to go before Christmas! Woohoo! Here's some sweetness while you get started on your Christmas to-do's - have a look at babydoll modelling this outfit that I sewed for her Julia Gabriel Bilingual Playclub class last week. The theme was "silver" so I couldn't resist!

I made the cardigan and the shorts which she is wearing. I also made a silver dress (with a tulle skirt!), which I thought she would pick to wear, but as you can see, she has a mind of her own.

The pattern for the cardigan is the Greenpoint Cardigan by Hey June, minus the buttons. The shorts are the Kid Shorts by Dana Made It. The fabric is a slinky, semi-sheer knit from Spotlight. The cardigan was quite a hit - the first time she put it on (which was the night before), she refused to take it off and even went to sleep in it. Plus, Ryan says he wants one too!

Enjoy the rest of the photos!

To preschool or not to preschool

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 15:59:00 +0000

I mentioned in an earlier post that babydoll is raring to go to preschool. She has been bugging me almost everyday, and especially in the morning when her brother goes off to preschool. We are thinking of starting her off in January next year, in N1 (Nursery 1).

Is she ready for preschool? I recall our paediatrician advising us to keep the littles home until around 4 years old if possible because preschool is a prime avenue for children to fall sick. Certainly, with Ryan, our target was four years old and that was what happened - we enrolled him at N2 (Nursery 2) (he was 3.5 years old, to be exact). Our target for babydoll was the same - N2 - and, if truth be told, we have asked for a place to be reserved for her at N2. We did not ask for a place at N1 because we did not expect to enrol her in N1.

Last week, babydoll was with me when I picked Ryan up from preschool (this is not usually the case). We were a little early and, from outside the classroom door, I could see that all the students were still in class, enjoying a storytelling session. Babydoll wasted no time - she sat down outside the door and started taking off her shoes and, as she was taking them off, she waved at me and said, "Bye bye, mummy."

Hah!

This little patootie was so happy! She obviously thought that I was bringing her to join in the class. Finally! finally! she could go inside the classroom and be part of the fun! Well, what else could I do except to open the door for her? She trotted inside without hesitation and looked for a place to sit among the students. Her brother exclaimed, "Hey! That's my sister, Rachel!" He sat her down and put his arm around her while the class finished the storytelling session.

After that, the students dispersed to go home. Ryan was delighted to have babydoll in his classroom and showed her off to his friends and showed her around the classroom. The two of them ended up at the books corner where they grabbed some books and sat down. Ryan's Chinese teacher sat with them and read a Chinese book to the two of them. By this time, the classroom was empty but they didn't want to leave.

Babydoll didn't look at/for me at all. Of course, she was with her brother but, the way things were going, I suspect that she would have been fine on her own too. I waited for them to finish the book, had a short chat with the Chinese teacher and then I managed to get the kids to leave.

I ask babydoll (almost) everyday now if she wants to go to school. The answer is a firm yes. I even tell her that I won't be there, and the answer is still yes. I even video-recorded it. Heh heh.

So, what do you think? Is babydoll ready for preschool? I think she is - mentally and emotionally. Despite being less than 2.5 years old, she is conversing well, unafraid to voice her opinions and needs. She is socially curious, always joining in the play of other kids. She is intelligent and thirsty to learn. She is also quite independent - I don't think she'll have issues separating from me. There is still the concern about health of course. In that respect, experience offers great reassurance - Ryan has not fallen sick from school before. I think it's a combination of luck and strong genes, so hopefully babydoll has the same luck and the same strong genes?

I feel so bad disappointing babydoll every time she asks to "go class", but now that the decision is made to enrol her, I'm looking forward to seeing how happy she is when she puts on her uniform and runs off to join the other kids!

Married at the playground

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 15:59:00 +0000

Every day after preschool, I will ask Ryan about his day. Interestingly, he usually starts by telling me what he ate for lunch! After we talk about pasta and chicken and noodles and fruit, I make a point to ask him three things: whether he feels happy, what he did in class, and who he played with that day. At the moment, he seems to be hanging out regularly with two girls called Audrey and Ayana.

Richard says that, when he dropped Ryan off at preschool a few days ago, Ayana rushed up to Ryan and hugged and kissed him! Then Audrey appeared and did the same thing! It reminds me of when Ryan started preschool in 2012. Back then, he was the object of attention of two girls as well, Katie and Kriti, both kissing and hugging and tugging him east and west.

Anyway, a few days ago when I picked him up from preschool, Ryan told me that he played with Audrey and Ayana, which didn't surprise me. Until he said, "Audrey and I got married."

Me: "Audrey and you got married???"
Ryan: "Yes."
Me: "When did this happen?"
Ryan: "When we were in the playground."
Me: "Did Audrey ask you to marry her?"
Ryan: "Yes."
Me: "How did the two of you get married?"
Ryan: "We leaned on each other. That's how we get married. We lean on each other."
Me: "Oh. Err. Ok."

Of course, it's just the girls involving him in their pretend play and nothing to worry about. Isn't it endearingly innocent? For the next few days, when I asked him about his day, I also asked him, "So, did you marry anyone today?"

Married at the playground. Gotta love it.

Life lately

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 15:59:00 +0000

Life has been nice and predictable lately. We made a conscious decision not to do any traveling as a family until December. Richard travels every week for work now so we always feel the temptation to tag along. Staying put has been very very nice, although I think the kids are almost ready for a travel top-up, so when December rolls around, we will be off again. Nowhere special, just off to see their cousins.

Ryan has been going for castings, as usual. Hopefully we can secure one more role to finish off the year, although I must say that it has been a great year, modelling-wise.

Ryan met Geronimo Stilton and Thea Stilton a few weeks ago at the new Kinokuniya store in Ngee Ann City. We bought a book so that he could get a photo taken and an autograph (it was stamped on). He chose "The Journey Through Time" (hardcover, special edition) and he's been reading a few pages every night before bed. I see him grinning all the time while buried in the book, so he must be enjoying it.

Ryan and I still enjoy our outdoor dates. Now that I have more time to spend with him, I try to spend more of that time outdoors.

Somehow, even though we live in tropical Singapore without four seasons, the weather seems so challenging, especially around this time of the year. If it's not the haze, it's the rain or the humidity. We just make the most of it and try to get outdoors as much as reasonably and safely permissible, even if it means just roaming around our carpark or donning raincoats and umbrellas to battle the drizzle in the pool.

We tried a new eatery last weekend. Well, new to us at least. This was BFF (battered fluffy flaps) on East Coast Road. Ryan was feeling either very happy or very hungry because he, Mr Picky, actually ate some of the pancake. Not all of it, just some, but if you know Ryan, you'd know that that's already significant.

Babydoll has much fewer food issues than her brother, as you can imagine from this photo of her with the gigantic tissue prata doused in strawberry sauce. Actually, although she requested it, she only ate a little bit of it before choosing to devour her brother's plain tissue prata.

Very often, we go for dinner at Frankel where there is a veterinary clinic with two gigantic dog figurines in the window. Babydoll always, always goes to visit them, standing outside looking in. Last weekend, she told me that she wanted to go inside to talk to them. And so she did. As you can see, she was absolutely thrilled to be able to touch the dogs (and ride them). She exclaimed that the dog was "So cute!" The receptionist kept smiling as she watched babydoll going on and on.

We attended a birthday party of one of Ryan's classmates last weekend. We usually try to find something around the house to wrap the birthday present. Sometimes I just put it in a nice bag with a ribbon. This time we used some art block paper that babydoll had used. Ryan stuck stickers on it for the birthday greeting.

There was a girl doing face painting at the party and when we got there, there was a queue of little girls all asking for the same thing - a rainbow on their arm. After the first four or five, even the painter tried to persuade them to have something else, but nope, they all wanted rainbows. Then, it was babydoll's turn and she asked for a lion. Heh heh, that's my girl.

That's all. I think we're quite up-to-date now!

A little squabble

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 04:06:00 +0000

I've mentioned that, while the littles play well together, they do quarrel as well.

Last week, the littles were playing together with the chalkboard easel. Babydoll was holding on to the eraser while Ryan wrote on the chalkboard. When Ryan wanted to erase what he'd written, babydoll refused to give up the eraser. And so they squabbled and quarreled and babydoll started crying. I was in the next room, but I could hear everything. After a bit, babydoll came running to me, in tears, with Ryan behind her, also very upset.

I asked, "What's happening?" and Ryan explained the situation ("Meimei has the eraser, but I want it."). From experience, I guessed that he'd probably tried to wrestle the eraser from babydoll so I suggested, "Well, why don't you try talking nicely to her?" And so he asked his sister nicely for the eraser, with a please and in a quiet voice, and babydoll gave the eraser to him straightaway. Babydoll does sometimes refuse his requests, however nicely put, but this time, she was quite happy to leave the game and stay with me, safe in a hug.

I told Ryan matter-of-factly, "Well, now you have the eraser, what's next? Meimei wants to stay here now". Ryan got all upset of course. He wailed, "Nooooo.... I want meimei to play together with me!" I pointed out to him, still in a matter-of-fact tone, that he wanted the chalk and the eraser and now he had the chalk and the eraser; and babydoll was not part of the game anymore. Ryan became very apologetic, and started crying his sorry to babydoll and begged her to play with him.

Well, after a bit, babydoll relented and Ryan took her hand and they both went off to play again. I think the whole thing took less than two minutes?

The next time we hugged (which was about an hour later), I told my son, "Thank you for playing together with meimei just now", as an acknowledgement that he'd done a good thing by resolving the issue. He grinned from ear to ear.

A couple of days later, I was in the playroom and I came across the chalkboard easel. This was written on it: "RACHEL I am sorry that I snatch that eraser. RYAN".

(You can see that he forgot the "t" in the word snatch, and added it in later, haha.)

So it looks like, after they went back to their happy play in the playroom, Ryan wrote his sister a proper apology and kept it advertised on the board. That was pretty great, I think.

For what it's worth, I'd like to put this out there as food for thought - what would you have done if you were the parent in this situation?

Some sweetness for the weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 02:03:00 +0000

Have a kickass weekend, everyone!

On friendships and circumstances

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 15:59:00 +0000

Ryan turns six in about ten weeks, in January next year. Next year, some of his friends will be starting primary school and others will be making serious preparations for their turn the following year. Six year olds doing serious stuff.

Already, many of the kids I know are doing four or more enrichment classes, on top of attending kindergarten. The exact choices differ but it is almost a rule that every five year old has a combination of music, language, sport and art/dance classes. Some are doing stuff like math or phonics or some sort of brain training. It is a culture, deeply ingrained. The preschooler's version of tuition.

At this point in time, I find myself going in the opposite direction. Ryan goes for a swimming class once a week and he has golf in his preschool once a week (which I predict he will ask to drop next term). He has no other structured classes. We have, in the past, explored a few other structured classes - not many, and they are all documented on the blog. I guess we didn't feel the need to continue with those nor have we felt an urgency to pick up another class for Ryan.

Now, this is not a post about who is right and who is wrong. Each family is entitled to make their own decisions and, given the same circumstances, people may still differ in what they think is best. We can have opposing opinions and still be good friends.

No, this post is about something much less obvious to some but very real to me. It's about friendships. Inasmuch as I am comfortable being different from the rest, I sometimes wonder how it will affect our social relationships in the future.

I've mentioned the enrichment classes but it's not the only thing. Ryan leads a very different life from many of his friends and we, as his parents, sometimes make very different decisions from other parents.

What this means is that we have little in common with most of our friends.

I'm referring to people with whom we became friends because of our kids. When our kids were younger, we had everything in common. We were all on the same journey - from sharing our birth stories to shopping for children's items to potty training. It didn't matter if some of us were older, and others were younger; some were employed and others were not; some were richer and others were poorer; or some were more educated and others were less. We had no problems bonding because we were going through the same experience.

Now, it's looking a lot different. Well, at least from my side of the street it is. Sometimes it feels like everyone else is together on the other side. Like I mentioned, their kids all do the same type of classes; they even go to the same enrichment centres. They're all part of a culture, part of the same experience. And we're not.

So what will happen next year? I don't know. Of course there will be new friendships and new experiences but what of our present friends?

I do hope that our present friendships stay alive and well, despite the different lifestyles. Even though these friendships came into existence because of our kids, I would like to think that these friendships go beyond our kids. Circumstances can make friendships but friendships need not be limited to circumstances, right? I hope that's right but I guess time will tell.

Snippets of our weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 15:13:00 +0000

Here are some snippets of the weekend just past. It isn't a complete account of what we did, just some glimpses here and there.

We started our weekend on Friday, because the nanny was on leave. It felt exactly like a weekend, except that Richard was working. He joined us for lunch though.

Here are the littles enjoying playing together. They are painting here. They do squabble and sometimes, when it seems like one is disturbing the other's work, we will offer a new activity. For example, if Ryan is focused on building his train tracks, babydoll may come along and mess things up. I usually let them try to resolve things on their own but if they can't, I sometimes offer babydoll another activity. This only works for about three seconds - Ryan will then hurry over and join in! Well, at least they know that being a duo is more fun than going solo. More and more frequently now, they manage to resolve their little squabbles on their own, because they do want to keep playing together.

Here's babydoll being babydoll. I always get asked if my children are not pure Chinese or if they are some other race/blend. I think it must be their round eyes?

There was lots of water time. I read somewhere, "If your kids are crabby, put them in water." This is very true! Not that the littles were crabby but being in water definitely has a positive effect all round.

The tide was higher than usual on Saturday morning, after the heavy downpour the day before. I didn't drain our little swimming pool after our afternoon swim and the heavy rain in the evening flooded the adjoining bedroom!

Ryan was pleased to discover that he could do a new stunt on his scooter - riding on one front wheel (and the back wheel).

More water time.

Sitting at the sink, brushing their teeth. Up till now, we do not have a fixed teeth-brushing routine! The kids actually love to brush their teeth, they just need me to give them the signal. I must try harder to make this stick!

Okay, that's all!

A different point of view

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 09:13:00 +0000

For dinner last night, we went to Zaffron on East Coast Road. There is a small play area in the restaurant where the littles hung out. They made friends quickly with the other kids who were already there. In particular, babydoll was the fancy of another little girl (about 6 months older than babydoll). The little girl kept taking babydoll's hand, leading her all over the restaurant, weaving in and out of the tables. Babydoll thought it was all hilariously funny and kept giggling the whole time.

Babydoll's big brother was not so happy! He must have objected pretty strongly because the little girl's mummy had to bring the three of them to our table to explain that Ryan was upset at the fact that babydoll and her daughter had become fast friends. I asked Ryan, what's the matter? and his reply was, "I don't want meimei to marry this girl."

Heh heh.

Anyway, after some reassuring, Ryan was all right with the girls' friendship and he let them be. The girls had a great time, so much so that the little girl's mummy left us her contact number so that we could get the girls together again.

When we got home, I asked Ryan, well, "If you don't want meimei to marry that girl, who do you think meimei should marry?"

He said, "I want meimei to marry me."

Aww.

Truly, Ryan is not the most loving brother around. But his heart is definitely in the right place. I asked him what he thought to "marry" someone means, and he said it means to stay together with that person. So, despite their squabbles and their disagreements, it looks like he accepts babydoll as an important and essential part of his life.

Today I told him, if you want meimei to marry you, then you'll have to be nice to her, you know. He said ok. Heh heh, we'll see how long that lasts!

Here are some photos of the two monsters. These were taken in November last year.

Some sweetness for the weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 08:42:00 +0000

Yesterday, I helped to chaperone Ryan's class excursion to an exhibition at the Australian International School (AIS). It was a very interesting trip, both for the adults and the preschoolers. It was amazing to see what the Year 5 students at AIS could come up with to raise awareness of important issues like lack of education in some countries, unequal rights, global warming, health issues like vaccines and medical infrastructure, lack of clean water, poverty, homelessness, endangered animals, and lots lots more. Fantastic stuff - thoroughly researched and excellently presented.

I had a good time chatting with Ryan's classmates as well. They are very familiar with me as I am there everyday to send/fetch Ryan. Some of them have known me since Ryan started preschool in August 2012. I've also had the pleasure of volunteering for class activities with them over the past two years. They are a great bunch of children.

Babydoll is still itching to start going to school with Ryan. Yesterday she specifically told me that she wanted to "go class together" with Ryan. Our plan is to wait till August 2015 but, given how insistent she is coupled with our observation that she is, in fact, ready, we may have to review that date.

Have a good weekend, yeah? Here's your weekly dose of sweetness - some photos taken over breakfast when we were in Mauritius. See you on Monday!

A different point of view

noreply@blogger.com (Pinkie Pirate) — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 08:59:00 +0000

As promised, here's a whole lot of babydoll. Enjoy!