Cut! Cut!

This is one of DN's favourite words I think. He used to get so excited when he saw us cutting up food for him, so I guess it isn't that surprising that this was one of his first few words.

Actually, he still gets excited when we cut food for him. He'll shout "cut! cut!" and mimic the chopping action with (a questionable) fervour.

PF and I were at Mustafa last weekend and I was so tempted to buy DN this kitchen-food set that consisted of some plastic food and utensils. The best thing about it was this piece of corn that you could split into two, perfect for cutting! I knew DN would love it.

Even though it was only $10, we didn't get it because only one piece looked fun (the corn). The rest were just boring, static pieces like a carton of milk (made of cardboard, how wise is that!), a skillet (yawn) and a plate (ho hum). Also, for only $10, the plastic was probably radioactive or something.

Well... God bless the Great Singapore Sale! Woot!

We got this wonderful toy at ELC for 30% off its usual price. You can cut ALL the fruit, not just one measly piece of corn, AND the plastic will not sprout legs and walk away.

Cut, cut and away!

Usual Price $33
Sale Price $23.10

No way would I have paid 33 bucks for plastic fruit. In the wise words of my brother, "Alamak, might as well buy real fruit for him to cut!"

This toy really puts the $10 Mustafa toy to shame. Check out the details! The peach has a pit, the orange has segments, lemon has sacs and the papaya has little seeds. $33 lor!

We got it right with this toy. DN loves it. ;)

But I just saw the Toys R Us catalog. They're selling a similar set for $14.95. ARGH. -_-

Dim Sum... Dim Sum...

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love the depth and breadth and height
Of carrot cake, oh let me take a bite!
Har gow, siew mai, char siew bao,
I love thee like I love my pacifier,
by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, steamed pork dumplings!
I love thee purely, fried wan tons!
I love thee with a passion unashamed,
Chee cheong fun, hum sui kok and chicken feet.
I love thee with a love I reserve
For water play on hot hot days.
I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life.
And, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better for lunch.

I hope Elizabeth Barrett Browning is not rolling over in her grave. :p

DN really loves dim sum. I think it's because there's a constant stream of food arriving at the table. Oh dear, he looks like a bao in this pic.


There are so many things wrong with this picture I don't know where to start. The giant baos? The pink trishaw dressed in tulle, lace and feathers? The fluffy pink stuffed heart cushions?
The fact that DN seems so at home in this monstrosity of a vehicle???

It's HOTTTTT!

DN has the metabolic rate of a cheetah so with the current heat spell, he's constantly looking as if he walked through a car wash. Unfortunately, he doesn't smell like he's been in a car wash. -_-

We were at my mom's one HOT weekend and keeping him in the house wasn't an option. It was like sitting in a furnace. The poor thing had his sweaty hair plastered to his scalp and he wasn't smelling too fine. These days, DN smells good for a grand total of 10 minutes each day - 5 minutes after his morning bath and 5 minutes after his evening bath. After that, he starts smelling a bit funky.

Anyway, that hot day, my granny came up with a wonderful solution - dump him in a tub of water outside!

She dug out an old aluminum tub, my mom found some old toys and I threw in 2 plastic bowls and a sieve (fishing net!). DN had a gala time splashing about, catching sharks with his "net", arranging all the plastic fish, sharks, ducks and turtles on the wall ledge, dumping them back into the tub and arranging them in a row again. FAR-NEE!

Can you guess how long he stayed in the tub?

30 minutes? Nope.


45 minutes? Nope.


1.5 hours! AHHHHH!

In the market the other day, I picked up some goodies for future water play - a tiny sieve for fishing ($0.50), a squirt bottle ($0.80) and a spray bottle ($1.50), all for less than $3!

My world has changed

In school this week, I talked to my kids about media violence and its influence on children and youths. My research revealed some interesting nuggets of information.

• Television alone is responsible for 10% of youth violence. (Leonard Eron, Senior Research Scientist at the University of Michigan)
• The more real-life the violence portrayed, the greater the likelihood that it will be learned. (American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement, Volume 95, Number 6, June 1995)
• Children younger than 8 cannot uniformly discriminate between real life and fantasy / entertainment.

Scary stuff.

During my lesson, I suddenly remembered Jamie Bulger. I remember reading somewhere that his killers copied what they watched in the movie Chucky. So I told my kids about this extreme case of how influential the media can be.

After the lesson, I went online to check on the details of the case. And that's when my heart fell like a ton of bricks. Reading about it now is so different compared to reading about it in 1993. I mean, I was sad and shocked then, but as a parent now, reading about it made me hurt in places that never hurt before.

He was just shy of his 3rd birthday and he must have been so scared.

When PF picked me up from school that day, I talked to him about it. I really needed an outlet. I felt like a tight balloon ready to explode. We spoke about how different it feels now, to read about tragedies and little children, and how we both hate, really really hate, to read articles like that in the newspapers. And we found that we both skip those articles altogether.

It hurts because you think about your own baby, and you think, what if?

It's strange. During my pregnancy, I never felt any connection or bond with the baby at all. I was very worried I was incapable of loving my baby because ALL the books talked about talking to your belly, but I could never do it. It just felt too weird and earth-mother-ish. But when the nurse put DN in my arms for the very first time, I suddenly felt this insane explosion of love. It was crazy. I realised there and then that I will jump in front of a hurtling bus for this 47cm long, swollen, wriggling, helpless being.

It was at that time that I became a parent. And my world changed.

DN hearts "tutu"

Pacifer = Soother = Tu Tu = Puting = Choot Choot

We never planned to give him a pacifier, but we weren't really against it either. There's tons of literature out there on why you should / shouldn't introduce a pacifier, and no one's right or wrong. I guess we allowed him the "privilege" because it really did calm him down A LOT when he was less than a month old. Well, it's not called a pacifier for nothing.

It's been 20 months and now, DN will trade his parents for his pacifier. -_-

I think we gotta start getting used to being animal fodder because in 10 years, he'll probably trade us for extra PE lessons, and in 20 years, a jug of beer???


"Nah mom, TWO jugs of beer!"


How to spot a Singaporean in the crowd - he's the one with the extra buffet plate, goodie bag, lecture notes... extra pacifier!

DN's Lair

A few months ago, DN inherited this uber-cool Little Tykes castle from his cousins Keane & Keefe who are already... 15 and 14! I swear, Little Tykes toys last forever. They're like Terminator-Plastic.

Those of you who have been to our place will know that we live in a wee little house. There's just enough space for all 4 of us and just enough space for all of PF's our junk. It's definitely not grand living, but cosy living suits us just fine. :)

Anyway, the castle sat in our study for 2 months coz we just didn't know where to put it.

Backyard?
No. Even Terminator-Plastic's not a match for Flash's radioactive pee.

Study?
No. It's a tiny 3m x 3m room which already has a washer, dryer, 2 bookshelves and 2 desks. (!!)

DN's room?
No. Putting it there means taking out his cot. Then he'd have to sleep in the castle (which isn't that bad an idea, but not yet).

The planets must have been in the right alignment last Sunday (or the cogs in our brains finally deigned to move) because we found the perfect place for the castle, and it was staring us in the face the whole time : the front yard. -_- What a pair of gorblocks (read : right idiots) we are. I don't know what PF's excuse is. Mine is childbirth.

Our storeroom study.



The castle's new home, our front yard. :D

It looks really easy to put up coz it only has 4 sides, but it's not. As PF and Josh struggle to mix and match the 10kg panels, I help by pointing the fan at them and shouting words of encouragement. HA!

Then it took us 5 minutes to decide where the slide should point. -_-

We finally got to use these foam mats that came in a "congrats on your new baby" hamper from my office in 2006. HA!

This is what the king of the castle did when we gave him the go ahead to go out and play just now. He's such an auntie. All he needs now is some tissue paper under his sleeve.


Thanks for the castle, Aunty Penny! :)